Tentative targets set to replace nearly 3,000 lead pipes in 2019

From the East End to the North Side, a patchwork of city neighborhoods should see nearly 3,000 lead pipe replacements next year under a tentative work plan assembled by the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority.

Morningside, Homewood, Mount Washington, the South Side, Greenfield, Perry North and Perry South are PWSA’s targets for the service line replacements in 2019, the utility reported Friday.

That could change depending on negotiations with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, PWSA spokesman Will Pickering said.

The details emerged as local and state leaders feted PWSA’s progress

in swapping out lead service lines, which can present a contamination hazard for drinking water. The work is ahead of schedule for this year, with laborers replacing roughly 2,100 lead connections from January to December.

By late 2019, PWSA will have replaced 5,000 to 5,500 of an estimated 12,500 residential lead service connections systemwide, executive director Robert Weimar said. The authority should be on pace to finish the rest by 2026, he said. It counts about 71,000 residential connections overall.

“PWSA has gone through a very difficult time, but they’re functioning under new leadership in a way that residents here can have confidence,” state Rep. Dan Frankel, DSquirrel Hill, said.

He joined Mayor Bill Peduto, state Sen. Jay Costa, D-Forest Hills, state environmental Secretary Patrick McDonnell and other officials for a news conference in Greenfield, where a contractor demonstrated a service line replacement.

“PWSA has gone through a very difficult time, but they’re functioning under new leadership in a way that residents here can have confidence.”

— State Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill

Service lines connect buildings’ indoor plumbing to water mains beneath the street. Under a state order, PWSA is supposed to replace at least 7 percent of its lead service lines each year after high lead readings in some homes triggered the intervention in 2016.

An orthophosphate water treatment that PWSA plans to introduce early in 2019 is expected to reduce contamination risks. The food-grade additive coats the insides of pipes.

“I’m very confident that by next year, lead levels in our water will be significantly lower, and we will no longer be under a decree to replace lead lines,” Mr. Peduto said. “But as a city, we have made a commitment to do it anyway.”

About $49 million in loan and grant funding from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority will cover lead line work in 2019.

The authority plans to send letters in November to customers whose water connections may be eligible for replacement next year.

The state money covers removing both privately and publicly owned portions of the service lines, so the connections can be replaced in full at no cost to customers.

“Private line replacements, out of a household budget, can be very expensive,” Mr. Pickering said.

Also Friday, PWSA said it will continue a winter moratorium on service shut-offs for qualifying customers. The moratorium will be in place from Dec. 1 to March 31, available to single-family residential customers with annual income at or below 250 percent of the federal poverty level.

About 2,150 customers took advantage of the moratorium last winter, according to PWSA.