WSSC reports 97% of service lines identified; 15,500 unknowns and a multi-year replacement plan

WSSC's lead-reduction presentation emphasized the utility's multi-decade efforts to control lead and its new responsibilities under revised EPA lead-and-copper rules. "We now have 97% of the service lines identified as not lead," Jin Shin, the utility's lead program manager, told the committee, describing an inventory built from about 478,000 plumbing and permit records.

Shin said about 15,500 service lines remain of unknown material and require field verification; the utility also listed roughly 1,377 galvanized services requiring replacement and a smaller number of initial records showing lead from the 1940s. WSSC presented a planning-level program cost in its materials (committee discussion referenced approximately $194,000,000), said it has secured about $34,000,000 in state revolving funds so far, and emphasized a strong outreach plan including a GIS map interface, website resources, mailings and translation support. Shin said the initial inventory will be published by Oct. 16 and that full replacement work is expected to advance over the next several years in coordination with customer engagement and local financial assistance programs.

Council members pressed for neighborhood-level mapping and asked how the utility will prioritize work; WSSC said its prioritization framework emphasizes vulnerable populations (young children, pregnant people) and disadvantaged communities and that it is exploring predictive models and field test-pitting to verify unknown lines.