Normal’s water chief laid out a plan Monday to replace the town’s remaining lead water service lines by spring 2025 to meet revised federal guidelines.
Those guidelines, from the U.S. EPA, aim to better protect children and communities from the risks of lead exposure by getting the lead out of drinking water. The town is required to submit a lead line replacement policy and service line material inventory.
That inventory shows around 54 lead service lines remaining in the town -- a small portion of the 18,000 service lines townwide. Most of the 54 lead lines are on the customer-owned side of the water service. All are serving single-family homes.
Those are projected to cost about $450,000 to replace, according to Normal Director of Water John Burkhart. He noted some recent water projects have been coming in under budget, so there should be money to move into next year for the replacement costs.
Since 2020, the town has replaced 31 lead lines. The town in 2021 began offering zero-interest loans to homeowners to incentivize them to replace customer-owned lead lines. But that’s only been used once since its inception, town staff said.
The town is also required to replace any galvanized line that the water system is not able to verify was not previously lead. Galvanized lines are made of steel with a coating of zinc to keep the steel from rusting.
It will cost around $550,000 to replace the 61 galvanized lines in the town, said Burkhart. Overall, he said roughly $1 million to replace both lead and galvanized lines is a “worst case scenario.”
No action was taken regarding Burkhart’s plan. If the council chooses to move forward with the plan at a later date, Burkhart will be tasked with submitting it to the EPA.
In other business, the council:
- Authorized the filing of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) citizen participation plan.
- Accepted quotes totaling $99,416 from Dell for the purchase of computer equipment.
- Approved the acquisition of furniture from Widmer Interiors. It’s a $42,903 price tag.
- Accepted quotes authorizing a contract with Stark Excavating, Inc. for a sanitary sewer service installation at 111 Merle Ln. for $40,600.
