Erie's $50 million lead pipe replacement plan: where does it stand?

Erie Water Works has a lot going on underneath the city’s streets as part of a $50 million, multi-year plan to update aging infrastructure and ensure water quality.

The region’s largest water system is in the midst of a multi-phase lead pipe replacement project. Erie Water Works CEO Craig Palmer said the utility began removing some lead connections/pipes from the system as far back as 2004.

It’s one of the largest ongoing capital improvement projects in years for Erie Water Works, which operates the water system on the city's behalf via a long-term lease agreement.

Erie Water Works has more than 63,000 residential, commercial, industrial and institutional customers in Erie, Lawrence Park Township, Wesleyville and Millcreek Township, as well as parts of Harborcreek, McKean, Greene and Summit townships.

"The work is progressing quite nicely," Palmer said.  "Because we have to access the customer’s water service lines and Erie Water Works meters inside the home or business being served, it can be a challenge to gain that access.  But we expected that.  From a standpoint of unforeseen issues, we really haven’t encountered anything substantive."

Here are more details about the Erie Water Works lead pipe replacement project.

Work focuses on the city of Erie

The project aims to remove nearly 7,400 lead service lines/connections from the city's system. The project is roughly 40% complete, with nearly 3,000 such connections in various parts of the city having already been removed/replaced with new lead-free pipe.

Palmer said the Erie Water Works project started doing the work years ago as part of ongoing capital improvement plans. The work is focused primarily on the city of Erie because other areas of the regional water system don’t contain lead pipes/connections.

For years prior to the replacement project, Erie Water Works provided "corrosion control treatment to prevent lead from leaching out of lead pipes and into the water system," Palmer said. That entailed adding the food-grade chemical ortho-polyphosphate to the water system to coat pipes.

The chemical controls metal corrosion.

The lead pipe replacement initiative also allows Erie Water Works to  comply with new federal regulations.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2023 announced a proposal that requires most U.S. cities to replace lead water pipes within 10 years.

That new mandate came in the wake of a massive water crisis in Flint, Mich., which started in 2014. That city’s drinking water was contaminated with high levels of lead as a result of deteriorating pipes, exposing roughly 100,000 people to water with elevated lead levels.

Erie Water Works used Geographic Information System technology, or computer-based mapping software, to identify where the connections were underground; the age of each connection; and their structural integrity, among other details.

Why is lead line replacement important?

The project will help to keep residents’ drinking water safe and lead-free by removing deteriorating galvanized pipe that likely contains lead deposits and poses a health hazard, according to Erie Water Works officials.

It will also eliminate the loss of water due to leaking, aged pipes, as well as the “associated expenses” related to those leaks, such as emergency repairs, according to Palmer.

Further, the upgrades are important in terms of environmental justice, defined as the social movement to address concerns about the potential exposure of poor and marginalized communities to harm from hazardous waste, resource extraction and other environmental issues. Many of the areas targeted for water line replacement in the city are located in state-designated Environmental Justice areas, defined by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection as any census tract where 20% or more of the residents live at or below the federal poverty line or where 30% of the population identifies as a non-white minority.

"Exposure to lead in drinking water can cause serious health effects in all age groups," Palmer said. "Being able to focus on meaningful and lasting infrastructure improvements within environmental justice areas in the City of Erie, some of the poorest zip codes in Pennsylvania and the country, is so important for our community."

What’s the Erie project's timetable?

Erie Water Works hopes to have about 85 percent of the project finished by 2025. Palmer said the entire project should be finished by 2027.

How is the pipe removal/replacement being funded?

The project’s roughly $50 million comes from both federal sources — including $6.5 million from the Water Infrastructure Fund Transfer Act and $24 million from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act — and grants/loans from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority.

The city of Erie was required to sign off on Erie Water Works’ PENNVEST funding because the city owns the municipal water system.

City Solicitor Ed Betza has said that PENNVEST loans will be repaid by Erie Water Works through water system revenues generated via customers, and that the city is not responsible for repayment.

Contact Kevin Flowers at kflowers@timesnews.com. Follow him on X at @ETNflowers.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Getting the lead out: $50M Erie pipe replacement plan moves forward