Legislation could ease replacing city’s lead waterlines

Voting without dissent, the state Senate passed bills Wednesday that could ease the replacement of lead service connections for Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority customers.

The legislation moves to the House, where city officials want it to merge with a proposal to place PWSA under the state Public Utility Commission’s oversight. Sponsored by Sen. Wayne Fontana, the Senate bills would let public money go toward select improvements for private water and sewer connections with public infrastructure.

“The Senate’s vote [Wednesday] signals a willingness to do all we can to help communities assure the safety and reliability of Pennsylvania’s water systems,” Mr. Fontana, DBrookline, said in a statement. “With an understanding that replacing aging lead water lines is a costly undertaking, these bills give municipalities more ways to help citizens repair or replace sewer laterals and water lines on their property.”

PWSA is under a state and federal mandate to replace at least 7 percent of its lead service lines each year — an order triggered by elevated lead test results last year. Mayor Bill Peduto has said as many as

25,000 service lines in the PWSA system could include lead.

The replacement requirement applies only to PWSAmanaged portions of the water service lines, which tie each building into an adjacent water main. But the customer-owned segment, which completes the connection into the building, often contains lead, too.

That leaves customers facing expenses that can reach several thousand dollars to replace their portion of the service pipe — a price that not everyone can afford, city officials have said. The Peduto administration has argued the state law does not expressly let municipal utilities use public money to remove and replace the private-side connections.

Under Mr. Fontana’s legislation, co-introduced with Sens. Jay Costa, D-Forest Hills, Guy Reschenthaler, R-Jefferson Hills, and several others, municipal authorities could use local government funds to work on private water and sewer lines when a threat menaces public health or safety. Provisions also would let local government and municipal authorities use money from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority to help residents “repair and replace deteriorating sewer lateral and water service lines on their property.”

Mr. Peduto praised the bills Wednesday. By month’s end, he said, he wants public officials in Pittsburgh to have the ability to remove complete lead line connections — both public and private segments.

“But if we’re not able to get it through Harrisburg, then we also are poised to have the same [outcome] but using the city as a third party,” Mr. Peduto said.

The latter option would hinge on legislation that his administration has placed before City Council. It would designate the city as a party in removing private-side lead service connections — with property owners’ consent and public funding to cover the expense.

Council had been scheduled to discuss the idea Wednesday, but held off for now because state lawmakers are still weighing the proposals there, mayoral spokesman Timothy McNulty said. Lead exposure is linked to developmental problems and other ailments.

“Sen. Fontana’s legislation would allow the water authority to remove the line. The legislation we have before council would use the city … to remove the line in a partnership between the homeowner and PWSA,” Mr. Peduto said. “It’s a little more complicated process.”

Adam Smeltz: 412-2632625, asmeltz@post-gazette.com, @asmeltz.