Milwaukee lead pipes; EPA pushes to ramp up replacements

MILWAUKEE - There are millions of lead water pipes going to people's homes across the country and a new federal rule could mean those pipes are replaced within 10 years.

This change could affect the city of Milwaukee’s efforts.

As the EPA and the Biden administration put forward new rules that would require cities to replace lead pipes, Milwaukee leaders continue their own efforts, block by block.

Over at the Frank P. Zeidler Municipal Building, in the Milwaukee Water Works department, superintendent Patrick Pauly said it was estimated, only a few years ago, replacing all of the city's lead service lines would take 60 years.

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"We’ve been replacing lead service lines for nearly seven years now, and feel like we’ve gotten pretty good at it," Pauly said. "It was the first time funding was allocated, specifically to lead service line replacement."

But the federal government's $15 billion infrastructure plan changed that.

Mayor Cavalier Johnson called for lines to be replaced in 20 years, focusing on the disadvantaged communities most at risk.

The city has replaced about 6,400 lead service lines since 2017; about 1,200 for 2023.

The goal is to increase that number to 2,200 lines replaced in 2024 as part of the 20-year plan. But the EPA's proposed rule change would essentially cut that timeframe in half from 20 years to 10 years.

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"This proposed rule will force us to adjust even further, and expand more aggressively," Pauly said.

City of Milwaukee Water Works Superintendent Patrick Pauly

There are about 65,000 residential lead service lines in the city, and an estimated nine million across the country.

If approved, the rule would be a daunting task for cities, as some don't know where they are. For Milwaukee, Pauly said the city is in a good position, even with a possibly compressed timeline. But he noted that one question will be if there will be enough contractors to do the work, if and when, other cities start the replacement process as well.