Cities preparing for lead pipe mandate...wary of who pays for it
Regulation would have cities creating inventory of lead service lines, and plan to deal with them
By News Channel NebraskaBEATRICE – Following the widely publicized water contamination problems of Flint, Michigan…cities across the U.S. will be facing a new mandate….one they’re unsure of how much support they’ll receive paying for.
Under an environmental protection law, cities will be required to track where lead water pipes remain and come up with a plan to replace them. Beatrice City Administrator Tobias Tempelmeyer says it’s referred to as the lead and copper rule.
"The EPA initially adopted it back in 1991, but it underwent probably the first major revision here in 30 years, in the last couple of years. It kind of got hung up through administrations. One started it. The other kind of waited for a chance to review things, and they finally decided to move forward with the final ruling on everything. The biggest change in there is it is requiring a public inventory of all lead service lines by January of 2024."
The change means water departments in communities will have to take inventory of all service lines leading to the meters in customer’s homes or businesses. There are about six thousand such customers in Beatrice.
"They are private lines from the water tap into your house. We'll have to contact property owners and ask them, is it made out of lead, is it made out of galvanized, is it copper, is it plastic? Then, put that into an inventory and submit that to the federal government, again, by 2024. Then, we have to update it annually...and then we have to create a plan on how to address any of the lead lines that are out there or any of the galvanized lines that are out there."
Tempelmeyer says the whole effort will require communication with property owners…including assistance from city staff to help determine what’s there. There’s also the question of, what happens if a property owner doesn’t allow an official to determine what pipes exist?
Although there are no lead lines the city owns, there are most certainly such older connections on private property.
It’s a federal mandate written under the Trump Administration, reviewed and then authorized by the Biden Administration.