After 30 years as a homeowner on Front Avenue, Diane Schultz was relieved when a mailer arrived with a unique offer.
St. Paul Regional Water Services would open up the street in front of her house, shoot a pneumatic bullet under her home’s foundation and remove and replace the aged lead service line that connects her water meter to the utility’s water main. Much of that lead piping snakes through her private property, but St. Paul Regional Water would do the work free of charge. First, the agency needed one thing: her permission.
Schultz was among a dozen or more Front Avenue homeowners who jumped at the opportunity. In some parts of the city, the utility has been less lucky convincing homeowners to sign up.
“They don’t understand what it’s all about,” said Schultz, surrounded by utility workers while standing in front of a spray paint outline of the future dig site by her front yard.
A 10-year citywide effort
Also present was Gov. Tim Walz, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and St. Paul Regional Water President Patrick Shea, who joined state Rep. Sydney Jordan, DFL-Minneapolis, to promote bipartisan legislation that would repeat the same offer — free lead pipe replacement — across Minnesota. The capital city has dipped into federal American Rescue Plan funds to jumpstart a 10-year, citywide effort, and the governor’s revised “One Minnesota Budget” proposal includes $240 million to replace lead pipes on private property throughout the state.
“This has been a challenge for us to address because lead service lines, and service lines in general, are both publicly and privately owned,” said Jordan, noting that her bill had “maxed out” on co-authors. Among them is state Rep. Joe Schomacker, R-Luverne, and assistant minority leader Rep. Isaac Schultz, R-Elmdale Township.
Bradley Peterson, executive director of the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities, recalled when the former mayor of Pipestone, a city near the Iowa border, raised concerns about lead service lines at a coalition meeting three or four years ago.
“We’ve been surprised by the communities that have come forth,” Peterson said.
Jordan’s stand-alone bill, which is nearing a likely up-or-down vote on the House floor, would allow municipalities to apply to the state’s Public Facilities Authority and the Minnesota Department of Health for lead pipe replacement grants. It also includes $20 million to help smaller communities map out locations where lead pipes likely line private homes.
The U.S. Environment Protection Agency has asked some 50,000 utilities to share an initial service line inventory or demonstrate the absence of lead service lines by October 2024.
An estimated 12,000 utilities are expected to find lead service lines and will be required to make their inventory publicly accessible, and utilities serving 50,000 people or more will also be required to post their inventory online. St. Paul and many other cities have already done so.
St. Paul Regional Water, which recently hired 30 new workers and additional apprentice trainees to help with lead line replacement, removed some 350 lead service lines last year and plans another 850 lead line replacements this year.
How to get lead lines replaced
Interested St. Paul homeowners can update their contact information and fill out a “letter of intent” form linked from an online map of lead-lined properties at tinyurl.com/LeadReplace2023. They also can call the lead service team at 651-266-6820.
St. Paul City Council Member Chris Tolbert said that when his wife was pregnant, he was taken aback to learn his home had lead piping, so he spent $6,000 to have it replaced. Not every family can afford the expense.
“No amount of lead is safe for children,” Tolbert said.
Walz echoed those concerns. “Just imagine you get a $6,000 bill — all you want to do is make sure you have safe water for your children,” the governor said.
