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City launches targeted inspections to identify unknown service‑line materials; residents press for fixes in problem neighborhoods
Summary
City staff announced a predictive‑analytics approach and a contractor mobilizing in January to inspect representative meter boxes and identify pipe materials for the EPA lead/copper rule; council raised ongoing water‑quality concerns in McGregor Reserve and pressed staff on replacement timetables.
Justin Mahone, environmental compliance manager for utilities, briefed council on the city's plan to reduce the number of unknown water-service-line materials and comply with the EPA lead‑and‑copper rule.
"We've identified 0 lead lines in the city, 39 galvanized steel lines, 15,220 non lead and 9,175 unknown material," Mahone said, describing the inventory the city published and the challenge of classifying the unknowns. To avoid excavating every service, the city contracted Black & Veatch for predictive modeling and selected 369 representative sites; HST Utility will mobilize after council authorization to field‑verify the sample sites starting Jan. 5 and will perform photo documentation, visual and scratch tests and a magnet test to identify pipe material.
Councilmembers pressed staff about what happens after identification. Utilities Director Richard Moulton said the city has invested in targeted replacements and flushing programs and would evaluate capital investments where needed: "We invested dollars — $2,000,000 — in replacing the line along the ditch bank," he said, and staff described continuing aggressive flushing and sampling in problem subdivisions. Council and staff agreed that verified city‑side material requiring replacement will be scheduled against the EPA timetables and budget constraints, and staff said results will be incorporated into the predictive model and posted publicly.
