How my Wisconsin city is making clean and safe water possible
On Nov. 7, as I participated in the removal of a lead service line from the Thao family home, I finally witnessed how approaching an infrastructure project with the prioritization of public health and community can change the trajectory of a family, a city, and a nation.
“I never really realized that we were drinking out of lead pipes,” said Kyle Thao whose grandparents have owned the Wausau home for 46 years. “So to know now that the pipes are going to be replaced and we’re going to have better, cleaner, safer drinking water, it’s definitely exciting, especially for my grandparents.”
I am so proud to be the mayor of Wausau, Wisconsin, a diverse, middle-class community in the heart of both North Central Wisconsin and America. Right now, we have the challenge of replacing roughly 8,000 lead service lines from my city of 40,000 residents. Historically, we, like most other cities and utilities across the country, have looked to the homeowner to pay for all or part of the cost.
Some 9.2 million homes in US still have lead service lines
Unfortunately, the communities where lead remains most prevalent are those that are disadvantaged and don’t have the means to do so. That was until I attended Vice President Kamala Harris’s Get Out the Lead Summit in Washington DC last January, where I had the opportunity to both participate in and learn from a diverse audience of elected officials, policy leaders, and public health experts about their own challenges and prospective solutions for removing the estimated 9.2 million lead service lines from their communities.
It was there I realized that lead in our water is a public health crisis not only an infrastructure problem. If we don’t view this through a community-centric, public health lens, we will continue to get infrastructure results. That is why Congress dedicating $15 billion in infrastructure funding for the removal of lead service lines is a game changer for communities like Wausau and residents like the Thao family.
Public-private partnerships key to speeding line replacements
If we were going to change the status quo, I knew we needed a private sector partner that could assume the risk but guarantee our desired outcomes. The City of Wausau, through a Community-Based Public-Private Partnership, engaged Community Infrastructure Partners to do just that. Outcomes such as using local, minority-owned small businesses to do the work, developing a comprehensive training and workforce development program, through LiUNA and Wisconsin Laborers Council, and controlling both the costs and schedule for the work were all included in our performance-based contract.
We are actively putting to work the $5.7 Million from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for year one of our EquiFlow program, where we will replace a minimum of 550 lines. That’s 11 times more than we ever replaced through traditional avenues. The program will expand year over year to reach our 8,000 line goal.
Wausau is proud to be a first mover in this space. Our experience and lessons learned through the use of a CBP3 to remove lead service lines will provide a roadmap and serve as a catalyst for other communities to prioritize the health of their residents.
Taking out these toxic water pipes is a once-and-done solution that is among the simplest steps city leaders can take to help all residents have safer drinking water. Our cities are not there yet, but with President Joe Biden’s “Investing in America” agenda, we are going to make it happen. Now that the funding and legislation is in place, it is incumbent on us as elected officials to ensure we seize on this moment to maximize the opportunity to finally eradicate this longstanding public health concern that has ravaged our most vulnerable communities and populations for far too long.
Katie Rosenberg is mayor of Wausau.