Water safety, lead removal plans advance at City Hall

Recommendations for improving the safety of Milwaukee’s water supply and reducing exposure to lead won the support of a panel of city officials Friday.

The Water Quality Task Force unanimously approved a report including nearly 20 recommendations at its meeting at City Hall. The proposals came after months of meetings and debate, with many of them focused on preventing exposure to lead and lead poisoning. This was the task force’s final meeting.

The group’s top recommendation emphasized the importance of replacing lead pipes, saying, “The city should do all in its authority to accelerate the removal and/or rehabilitation of lead service lines within its jurisdiction.”

That item was not in the original list of recommendations, but was added at the urging of task force member Ben Gramling. It was bumped to the top of the list after comments from Brenda Coley, the co-executive director of Milwaukee Water Commons.

“I don’t think that they’re emphasizing the replacement of the lead laterals the way that they need to be,” Coley said after the meeting. “And they’re going to have to come up with a timeline. Absent of that, this could go on for 40 years.”

She praised the task force’s efforts, but called for city officials to develop a “more robust public health campaign” as well as a concrete plan to prevent exposure to the toxic metal.

Three men who interrupted the meeting voiced frustration with city officials and called for more resources to be allocated to protect Milwaukee children and others from lead exposure. One of them was Robert Miranda, spokesman of the Freshwater for Life Action Coalition.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in December signed an ordinance that created a plan to start replacing lead service lines in the city. The ordinance said that Milwaukee Water Works will require the replacement of lead pipes in an emergency failure or leak, or during water main construction projects. Under the ordinance, the city agreed to replace lead service lines with copper at some 385 licensed child care centers and eight private schools.

Milwaukee and its residents face the daunting task of coming up with plans to replace lead laterals at some 70,000 residential properties.

During later public comments, Miranda stressed the importance of developing a better understanding of the medical and health dangers of exposure to lead.