Local reporters received an update Wednesday on Milwaukee’s lead pipe replacement plan.
There’s a heavy lifting ahead. The city still has tens of thousands of lead lines delivering drinking water to Milwaukee households, posing a risk to children’s health and development. Local leaders are counting on federal dollars to speed up their replacement.
Reporters converged on a shady stretch of North 38th Street in the Roosevelt Grove neighborhood.
Heavy equipment and a bevy of hard-hatted, safety-vested workers stood at the ready. But first, crew leader Wyatt Klumb gave a tour.
Instead of tearing up the street, crews dig two holes: One where the service line connects to the main water line, the other where the city’s side service line meets the property owners. A fancy machine bores a hole through which the new pipe — a copper one — is threaded.
Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin was among the guests. She asked how long the work takes and Klumb gave this answer.
“I try to get two to three homes a day. The city has two programs to set up. They have scattered sites, and they prioritize leaks and daycares, and that’s one program. The other project is the one we’re on now, and it’s a block project. So we come in, we’ll start at one end of the block; we try to do every single house on this block, “ Klumb says. “Which is, in my opinion, much more efficient.”
Milwaukee is in the process of replacing approximately 70,000 lines, 66,000 of which are residential, and the rest are commercial properties.
The utility covers the public side. The city pays 2/3 of the private side, and the owner pays the remaining 1/3. The average cost to the homeowner is just under $1600. That can be paid all at once or spread over ten years.
"That is codified in the ordinance that was adopted on January 1, 2017," Patrick Pauly says, the superintendent of Milwaukee Water Works.
READ What Does Milwaukee's Lead Service Line Mandate Mean?
Crews are working on replacing a four-block stretch here, “In advance of a pavement reconstruction project," Pauly says.
He says further refinements are in the works, based in part on the Water Works’ request for $30 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding.
“It will put us on a path to accomplish Mayor Johnson’s goal of replacing all lead service lines in Milwaukee in the next 20 years. (It features) prioritized projects in the neighborhoods of the greatest need throughout the city of Milwaukee,” Pauly says.
Crews would start in neighborhoods with the highest recorded childhood blood lead levels. Pauly says the Water Works has been working on the proposal since late last year. He’s hoping for approval by year’s end “Because in order to expand and ramp up, we’re going to need the first few months of winter: January, February, March to prepare and then have our contractors move out in March or early April to start the work,” Pauly says.
Mayor Cavalier Johnson says the city will go after every federal dollar available to push the program forward.
“Water Works will be hiring a firm to help manage our rapidly expanding lead pipe replacement program. I also want to eliminate or reduce the cost-share that property owners contribute for replacing their lead laterals,” Cavalier says. “Homeowners should not be the ones that have to foot the bill for decision we made decades ago before they purchased their homes.”
Johnson says he’ll be asking the Common Council to support that measure. There are some concrete dollars on the table.
Employ Milwaukee — tasked with building an equitable, sustainable workforce — was allocated $2 million in federal grant money.
President and CEO Chytania Brown says the dollars target boosting Milwaukee Water Works’ workforce.
“This project will build a more equitable workforce and address the critical need to increase the awareness of quality water utility jobs — especially in the plumbing and electrical trades. The project includes paid training and on-the-job learning. A key component that allows participants to leave low-paying employment to obtain upscaling with a goal of connecting with quality jobs with career-advancement opportunities,” Brown says.
Crew leader Wyatt Klumb who’s waited out the press event to get his crew back to work, has an opinion from the workforce side. He thinks the future looks bright for recruiting new workers, “Lot of interest in trades right now,” Klumb says.
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