EPA to assist Warren with lead removal

Get the Lead Out program to identify, plan and find funding

WARREN -- Water Department Director Franco Lucarelli announced at Wednesday's council meeting that Warren has been chosen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to be one of 200 communities that it will help with the replacement of lead service lines.

Warren will be part of the EPA's Get the Lead Out initiative through which the agency will partner with the city to assist in identifying lead service lines, developing replacement plans and applying for funding to "get the lead out," according to a fact sheet.

Lucarelli said the city had a "kickoff meeting" last week with members of the federal EPA that were from Washington D.C., Chicago and throughout the Midwest.

"This is a great opportunity for the city of Warren because we are getting the full backing of the federal EPA," Lucarelli said. "(We're getting) contractors that they will be supplying to the city of Warren free of charge to help with the location of these lead lines and consultants that are helping the water department and the city of Warren put together a comprehensive plan to not only locate but put a plan in place to get these lead lines out of these homes that are in the city of Warren."

In 2021, President Joe Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The $50 billion investment in water and wastewater infrastructure dedicates more than $15 billion to removing and replacing lead service lines according to an EPA news release.

According to the release, the EPA will work with communities to remove and replace lead lines by supporting the development of lead service line inventories, community engagement plans, lead service line replacement plans and state revolving fund applications.

"I want to thank Mayor (Doug) Franklin for his support and his help in getting us in contact with the proper people at the federal level so we could get on this list with the federal EPA," Lucarelli said.

Lucarelli also reminded residents that the water department is putting a survey in monthly bills in an attempt to better locate lead service lines in the city.

"We need the community to help us locate the lead service lines that may be going into homes throughout the community," Lucarelli said.

Previously, Lucarelli said the city serves 19,500 accounts. While he did not have any specific numbers regarding how many lead service lines were in the city, Lucarelli suggested there could likely be 1,000 to 2,000 service lines needing to be removed.

Lucarelli told council most homes that have service lines installed around 1960 have a possibility of having a lead line.

As Warren has houses that are over 100 years old, Lucarelli said the water department often has to deal with ancient, handwritten records.

"But we do need the help of the public to go down, look at your water meter and identify the material of that service line that is coming in and report that to the water department so we can put that in our records," he said.

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