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Decisions at the ballot box influence policies that support engineering standards and public safety.May/June2017
Communities: Government
New Effort Aims to Help Communities Address Lead Service Lines
The Flint water crisis shocked the country and spotlighted the dangers of lead in drinking water. While the crisis earned extra attention due to reported mismanagement, Flint’s water system is not the only one facing a lead issue. A USA Today Network investigation in 2016 identified almost 2,000 water systems nationwide with excessive lead levels in the last four years.
Although corrosion control has been the prevailing approach to lead service lines, a growing chorus of experts is pointing to a different strategy. Many now believe that the safest and most efficient solution is to completely replace the lines. Flint has finally received federal funding to help it do just that, and a collaborative of more than 20 partners is teaming up to assist other communities in following suit.
About six million lead service lines—connecting homes to water mains—remain across the US, according to the American Water Works Association. Removing them is a challenge because different portions are owned by utilities and customers. In addition, a midrange estimate for replacing each one is about $5,000. Nationwide, that adds up to $30 billion.
However, when asked by the Environmental Protection Agency for advice on rulemaking, the National Drinking Water Advisory Council, a group of stakeholders including utilities, consumer advocates, and health professionals, instead recommended a long-term strategy: that each community work toward removing all lead service lines entirely by 2050.
The Lead Service Line Replacement Collaborative brings together water stakeholders such as AWWA, the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, and the Water Research Foundation with environmental, health, and consumer groups to accelerate the full replacement of lead service lines. With a website launched in January, the collaborative aims to provide information, tools, and models; capture and share lessons learned; and offer technical assistance and facilitation.
The initiative was put together by RESOLVE, an organization that promotes consensus building in public decision making, particularly in solving controversial environmental, natural resources, and public health issues. RESOLVE has provided facilitation and mediation on drinking water issues for decades, including assisting with the EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule.
But, stresses RESOLVE President Emeritus Gail Bingham, the Lead Service Line Replacement Collaborative is not an advocacy group. The partners have different policy views, she explains. Instead, the effort provides a compilation of options, “with the caveat that we’re not endorsing these but they’re out there for communities to consider.”
And although the website offers a general roadmap, it doesn’t provide a pre-
determined list of steps to take, because each community’s circumstances are so different. “One of our assumptions,” says Bingham, “is that there will be different answers in different communities.”
But compiling lessons learned will help communities, especially those with limited resources, not have to start from scratch.
AWWA’s director of federal relations, Steve Via, says the tools can start the conversation and show people that it’s possible to take basic steps and make progress. “Break the problem down so you don’t…feel there’s too much to take on.”
He adds that the collaborative is hopeful that providing successful models will cause a snowball effect.
For example, the partners want to provide innovative ideas for funding. Models Bingham has seen include factoring costs into capital improvement plans, replacing service lines as emergency main replacement occurs (sharing the cost with the property owner, who spreads it out in the utility bill long-term), or even splitting the cost between a home seller and buyer.
With the website launched, the collaborative is now moving into a phase of supporting on-the-ground action. They don’t have funds to offer, but are working hard on outreach to let people know about the resources and invite feedback. “We want this to be a living thing,” says Bingham, “where if a community is looking for information that’s not there, let us know and we’ll try to find that.”
She also invites people to provide resources—for example, professional engineers could submit technical papers or case studies. And Via asks for feedback on what worked and didn’t.
Lead in drinking water is a complicated issue—but Bingham has hope because of the interest she has seen from stakeholders across the board. “The crisis in Flint I think touched everyone,” she says. “I am hopeful that the commitment to the health of children will motivate real action at the local level.”
