GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Green Bay is being considered a leader when it comes to lead and copper rule awareness and response.
That accolade was given as U.S EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler was in Green Bay to sign a proposal that would reduce lead in the nation’s water at Green Bay’s City Deck on Thursday.
“We are a coastal community and we are on a working river and we are situated at the mouth of Bay here, so it is essential for us to have a working relationship with the federal government,” said Green Bay’s Mayor Eric Gennrich.
Green Bay Water Utility General Manager Nancy Quirk said years ago, Green Bay had a big problem when they had high amounts of lead detected.
“In 2012, we exceeded the action level for lead in our system, and we quickly looked to find what was causing the action.”
The whole project has taken nearly 7 years and is in the final stages.
Quirk explained how the whole process was a group effort and why the plan is still being worked on seven years later.
The water utility contracted with scientists and engineers to work out a plan and to conduct studies.
It was determined that they needed to clean and in many cases remove lead services as well as research how they can prevent corrosion from occurring.
“We began unidirectional flushing in 2014. With the 440 miles of water main that we had, it took us two years.”
The process also included adding over 70 miles of transmission line to the lake.
Quirk says in 2018, they were able to come back into compliance.
“We are down to about 305 services, we started with about 1800.”
That process included public outreach and many hands on deck.
Quirk explained that meter reading staff members visited over 3000 homes and performed many service replacements.
“They flushed every service after replacements,” Quirk said. “When we are doing a replacement, they take the meter off and put a pump on it so that nothing gets into the home.”
Schools were given information on the EPA’s recommendations and action was taken to get every school’s water tested in 2016.
They worked with the Department of Public works for the projects and worked with the city and the Wisconsin DNR for funding for the project.
Quirk said the Green Bay City Council approved $300,000 dollars from the Lambeau Tax Refund to fun private lead service replacements. She says they have replaced 220 private lead services and have 19 to go, all without a cost to the private owner.
This action was praised by the EPA on Thursday.
David Ross Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water says Green Bay’s method should be the blueprint for how the response should be to lead in the water nationwide.
“Our job is to replicate what Green Bay has done,” Ross said. “They identified a problem, developed a plan and developed the willpower so they got creative on how to finance and then they went to implement the plan.”
He said what really stood out about the way Green Bay handled their situation is the communication and the ability to understand that projects this size do not happen overnight.
“You put down a plan, you know it is going to take time and you are measuring success based on that plan and more importantly, you are not afraid to tell people where you are.”
They hope to be completed by December of next year.
Quirk says they continue to work hard to ensure that people of Green Bay are safe.
“In the near future, the city will not only be known for the Green Bay Packers, but for its awesome drinking water.”
