Commission approves PWSA lead line removal plan

The state Public Utility Commission has approved an agreement that requires the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority to complete the removal of all of several thousand lead service lines by 2026.

Other provisions of the settlement agreement will end the city residency requirement for authority employees and allow the PWSA to start billing city facilities that for the last 25 years have been getting millions of gallons of water for free.

The commission Thursday voted 5-0 to approve the settlement of compliance and infrastructure issues, many of which were first raised when the state Legislature placed PWSA under commission oversight in 2017.

The PWSA must file a full updated plan with the commission in the next 30 days to address those issues.

High water-lead levels have been a concern in the PWSA service area since 2016 and have exceeded federal lead action levels in five of the last eight six-month testing periods, although not in the last half of 2019.

The agreement promotes aggressive action on the lead service line problem, said Jennifer

Rafanan Kennedy, executive director of Pittsburgh United, a coalition of labor, faith and environmental organizations that participated in negotiations on the amended plan.

“Safe water is a right, not a luxury,” Ms. Kennedy said in a news release issued Friday. “Although work remains to be done to ensure all customers have access to safe and affordable service, this settlement puts PWSA on a path to replacing all residential lead service lines.”

She said the agreement, which contains provisions for free replacement of privately owned lead service lines and prioritizes line replacement in neighborhoods where lead lines are most common, could also provide a model for other utilities in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

And providing for a safe water supply for all city residents is especially important now during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Kennedy said.

“It’s time to rewrite the rules and take care of everyone,” she said, “no exceptions.”

PWSA spokesman Will Pickering said in response to questions that 6,919 public service lines and 4,322 private service lines have been replaced since July 2016 and that, according to the best available data, approximately 12,000 lead pipes remain in the system, which serves 83,000 customers.

Pete DeMarco, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which represented Pittsburgh United in the negotiations, said the authority is compiling an inventory of those lines.

Mr. Pickering said line replacement work has been halted due to the pandemic, but crews are still replacing leaking lead lines to ensure that customers are not left without water.

PUC Chairwoman Gladys

Brown Duitrieuille said in a statement issued by the PUC that ending the PWSA residency requirement would remove limits on the authority’s ability to “attract and retain capable and skilled individuals, as well as its ability to meet diversity goals.”

Nils Hagen-Fredericksen, a PUC spokesman, said commissioners found the residency requirement to be “not consistent with PWSA’s obligations to provide adequate, reliable, safe, efficient, and reasonable service under the

Public Utility Code.” He said PWSA has been directed to file an updated plan to address that issue.

The PUC-approved plan also endorses the termination of a 1995 cooperation agreement under which the city can use up to 600 million gallons of water a year for free. A new cooperation agreement, proposed by the city and PWSA in June 2019, would require the city to pay for its water use at 20% of the going commercial customer rate or $2.10 per thousand gallons.

Mr. Pickering said the biggest city water users are the Pittsburgh Zoo &

PPG Aquarium and city parks, including swimming pools and lakes. He estimated unmetered water usage by the city at 938,000 gallons annually.

The PWSA will also file quarterly reports with the PUC through October 2025 to provide updates on operations, billing and customer services, lead service line replacement, finances and a variety of other issues.

Mr. Hagen-Fredericksen said Thursday’s commission approval was the first of a two-stage process. The first stage targets urgent infrastructure, health and safety issues.

“The other issues ‘modified’ today by the Commission are all related to ensuring that specific details (like lead line replacement) are spelled out clearly — so all parties understand what will happen as we move forward,” he wrote in an email response to questions.

The second stage will focus on consumer issues such as billing, connections and stormwater management, Mr. HagenFredericksen said.