The City of Bloomington and Town of Normal will spend about $101 million over the next decade to remove lead water pipes leading to people's homes, most of that in Bloomington.
By now, most people know how lead can hurt brain development of children, and cause organ damage and neurological problems in adults. A lot of people have heard about serious lead poisoning from the municipal water supply in Flint, Michigan. Since then, the rate of children diagnosed with ADHD or learning disabilities has doubled in Flint.
It's a potential catastrophe in many cities and towns. Bloomington water director Ed Andrews said lead was once considered a miracle metal. It's easy to shape and doesn't rust. That was before society knew it could poison people. Many cities including Bloomington had ordinances governing its use.
"Up until 1956, it was mandated that the gooseneck — the connection from the main to the curb stop, when the developer built the subdivision — that portion of the line had to be lead," said Andrews.
When the ordinance was updated in 1956, the city allowed copper or lead. Andrews said. There are no records that developers continued to use lead after 1956, but it could have happened. Only in 1982 did the city get rid of lead as an option. And in 1992 the Environmental Protection Agency started requiring communities to test for lead in the water.
Bloomington and Normal have not had problems with free lead in the water. Nor do most communities. That's because over time, a coating forms on the lead lines which minimizes the chance it will leach into drinking water.
Andrews said Bloomington's water treatment process even helps.
"Part of that is from our filtration process up at the plant. A byproduct is phosphate in that system. That's part of that coating that you see downstream in the distribution pipes that we benefit from," said Andrews.
The federal government has long said leaving lead water service lines around is a bad idea. The EPA has required all communities to inventory their lead lines by mid-April. Bloomington and Normal said they are both in good shape to meet the deadline. The communities have been working on it for a while.
Normal City Manager Pam Reece said the town did some of the inventory years ago when it updated how it measures water use.
"When we were installing new meters, the staff had an opportunity to take an inventory of the service line leading into the homes. So that really helped us complete our inventory," said Reece.
Scope of work
The inventories show Normal has about 100 known or suspected lead or galvanized water service lines. Bloomington has more than 10,000. That's a huge difference.
Part of it is the size of the system. Bloomington has about 32,000 total service lines. Normal has half that. John Burkhart, the water director for Normal, said another part of the explanation is that Bloomington is older. A lot of housing in Normal went up in the 1950s and later when lead wasn't used.
"And I also note the town has been working on replacing lines, I have some data on going back to the '80s," said Burkhart.
Any time there was a water shutoff for non-payment or when a water shutoff broke, Normal looked and replaced lead when workers found it. That was long before the EPA started talking about mandated removal of lead lines. Town staff credited then city manager Dave Anderson and water director Joe Martin for getting the early start on the work that is now required. Communities must replace 10% of the lead lines per year over the next decade.
It's not just lead service lines. Normal's Reece said it's galvanized pipe too, sometimes.
"The EPA is concerned with proving that galvanized lines were never attached at one point to a lead line. So, it's possible that if there is a galvanized service on the private property side and at one point maybe the municipality had a lead line attached to the valve, the EPA says there is a chance that might be at risk," said Reece.
Lead can attach to the surface of galvanized pipes. Over time, the particles can enter your drinking water.
Some other cities with infrastructure of about the same age are further along than Bloomington. Often, though, the reason for that progress was not a good thing. Galesburg, for instance, had elevated lead levels during testing of its water, something Bloomington has not had. After a long discussion with the EPA, Galesburg got to work about 20 years ago and is pretty much done with its lead service line problem.
Until the 10-year federal mandated deadline to finish the job came down the pike, Bloomington's situation was not as urgent. Bloomington will take the full decade the feds allow to do the work. Since Normal's scope is so much smaller, the town plans to finish in 2027.
Bloomington estimated it will cost $10,000 per service line. Normal estimated slightly less. Nevertheless, Normal Water Director John Burkhart said it will still cost the town a million dollars, or 1% of Bloomington's tally.
"It's a really challenging scenario with a lot of utilities. Each community is trying to figure out a way they can get them replaced where the sole burden isn't on them," said Burkhart.
Who pays?
Communities traditionally ask homeowners to pay for the portion of the water service line replacement on their properties. The city pays for the distance between the main and the property line.
Is it mandated that the homeowner has to pay?
“Uh, that's, I guess, a tricky question because the EPA mandates that the water utility gets it replaced. They don't care how it's done," said Burkhart.
Burkhart says Decatur has a program to reimburse homeowners a certain dollar amount for the cost of replacement. Springfield has something similar. Normal has offered zero-interest loans and had only one property owner take them up on it.
Bloomington is going a different route, according to Ed Andrews.
"The city pays all of it. We have built total replacement into our rate increase instead of trying to compel the homeowner for that portion of the line from the curb stop to the house," he said.
If the cities and towns have to do the work, anyway, why would a property owner volunteer to pay?
"My opinion is it's the right thing to do for the homeowner to replace it because so many homeowners in the town have paid to replace theirs for the last 30-40 years," said Burkhart.
Nevertheless, the town will likely also end up footing the entire bill.
Bloomington's Ed Andrews said lead lines inside housing were not common, but other kinds of piping were — including galvanized. You recall galvanized pipes can attract free lead and let it loose over time. It could still be a good idea to replace galvanized pipes inside a residence. That responsibility stays with the homeowner.
What are ways a municipality can encourage property owners to check their internal pipes too?
"I don't have a positive solution or any solution to that issue, frankly," said Reece.
Burkhart said if a property owner suspects they have lead lines and can't tell themselves, the town can help verify it.
Bloomington's target is about 1,000 line replacements a year. Andrews said there are some logical ways to stack the work. The city will also be replacing six miles of water main replacement per year starting in 2025 and going for the next 70 years. It makes sense to do some of those service lines at the same time. Water main replacement will start in the older denser sections of town, also where there are more lead service lines. In Bloomington's capital plan Andrews said they estimate there are 120-150 service lines per mile in older denser portions of town.
Andrews said the city will also do batches of lead lines apart from the water mains to make up its annual quota, and there are other places at the top of the list.
“There are some in-home daycare facilities. We would ensure they are not on a lead service. That would be a priority. There are also some low and moderate-income neighborhood potential incentives that we can apply for some cost share," said Andrews.
Normal plans to pay for its lead line removal by reallocating money from other projects where the bids came in under the estimate.
At a $100 million price tag, Bloomington can't do that.
You may recall, last November the Bloomington City Council approved the first city water and sewer rate increase in 12 years. A portion of that money will go to lead removal. Another portion will fund water main replacement. And there are other costs to improve water-flow system wide.
The first round of the Bloomington rate increase hits residents May 1.
