GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Lead water pipes will soon be a thing of the past in Green Bay as the city’s water utility continues to work to replace them.
“We made a point to get rid of all of the lead service lines in a five year time period. And we’re in year five,” says Green Bay Water Utility Operations Manager Brian Powell.
Testing showed lead levels in some Green Bay homes reached above federal limits in 2019. The lines should be completely replaced by the end of the year – but it could likely happen by the end of the summer.
“We started out with approximately 1,800 lead services. As of today, we have about 190 lead services left,” Powell tells WTAQ News, “We’re going to have all of the lead out that we know of this calendar year. We made our five year goal, we’ve stuck to it, and we’re going to make it happen.”
Right now, the remaining service lines represent less than 1% of customers who are still impacted. The process used to install the replacements also is not expected to have too much of an impact on traffic as crews work under the roads.
Lead service lines are being replaced on streets that are being resurfaced and rebuilt throughout the year.
“We dig down and actually pull the new service in place of the existing lead. It saves us from having to open-cut a lot of the streets and saves us from causing a lot of disturbance from a customer perspective,” Powell says.
Older faucets, fittings, and some soldering components could still have lead in them, but the levels created by those installments is low. Most components made prior to 1984 will likely have some level of lead in them, but are often unlikely to make a serious impact.
A city ordinance requires homeowners with privately owned lead service lines to replace them – but financial assistance is available through the Water Utility.
While the water utility says the primary source of lead exposure is lead-based paint and lead-contaminated dust or soil. However, it’s estimated that 10-20% may come from drinking water. Lead exposure can lead to health problems, especially for pregnant women and kids 6 and under.
The water utility is also flushing water mains to remove minerals from the mains that are known to contribute to the lead levels in homes.
