Here’s why Milwaukee and Wisconsin are models for lead pipe replacement - and why President Joe Biden is there delivering the Biden-Harris swan song on lead in drinking water
By Valerie Nguyen, Janet Pritchard, Denise Schmidt, & Maureen Cunningham
You might wonder why President Joe Biden made the announcement of the final Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Part of the reason is, surely, because Wisconsin has replaced over a quarter of its known lead pipes between 1998 and 2023. That likely places Wisconsin as among the nationwide leader pack in terms of progress of lead service line replacement (LSLR). Starting in 2024, Wisconsin is taking advantage of the opportunity to remove even more lead pipes at an even greater scale and faster pace using federal funds appropriated under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) championed by the Biden-Harris Administration. For all of the millions of federal dollars flowing through the state, Wisconsin does a darn good job of getting the dollars out to communities who need them most.
Added to these state-level efforts, Milwaukee, under the leadership of Mayor Cavalier Johnson, has shown an increased commitment to replacing lead pipes over the next ten years. Towards that goal, Milwaukee has doubled the number of lead service lines (LSLs) replaced in 2024 compared to the prior year and is well-situated to ramp up lead service line replacement (LSLR) more steeply going forward. Adding all of this together, it’s no wonder that President Biden was in Milwaukee to deliver the final - and arguably - biggest news on lead pipe replacement in his four-year tenure.
Wisconsin ranks 9th in the nation for its lead pipe burden, with an estimated 150,000 utility-owned and 134,000 customer-owned lead service lines still in the ground at the end of 2023 [1]. But Wisconsin has been doing replacements in earnest since at least 1998. In total, Wisconsin utilities replaced over 114,000 LSLs between 1998 and 2023, roughly 26% of their entire 1998 lead burden [2]. Thanks to the momentum from the federal government, a visionary and well-oiled machine in the form of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR), and an influx of federal funds and support, the total number of lead pipes removed in 2023 was more than six times that in 2016 (11,245 compared to 1,790), and thanks to BIL funds, the pace of this replacement is expected to increase even more. Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, in his first year of office, even created the Year of Clean Drinking Water. More recently, Wisconsin was chosen as one of four states selected for the Biden-Harris EPA’s Lead Accelerators Program, funded with BIL funds intended to help accelerate the ability of Wisconsin utilities and others across the country to adopt and implement effective, efficient, and equitable replacement programs.
Wisconsin was the first state in the nation to create a dedicated program for funding lead service line replacement through its Drinking Water State Revolving Funds (DWSRFs). WDNR - the state administrator of BIL and other federal funds flowing through the DWSRFs - has continued to adapt its program over time to improve equity and expedite replacements. For example, WDNR revised its disadvantaged community (DAC) definition which EPIC recommended, and developed tailored, equity and efficiency-oriented project prioritization policies for LSLR projects. WDNR also makes good strategic use of set-aside allowances from the federal funds (i.e. BIL LSLR funds) to administer the program, help water systems comply with existing federal regulations and complete lead service line inventories, and educate communities about LSLR. This strategic use of set-aside funds by the WDNR, another thing that EPIC has advocated for, also improves the loan-to-principal forgiveness ratio for lead service line replacement projects, making these awards more attractive and affordable. Recently, WDNR used BIL funds to establish a $4 million Lead Service Line Replacement Community Outreach Grant Program that will provide financial assistance for community outreach efforts in support of LSLR, a key factor in a utility’s ability to get the lead out faster and cost effectively.
To date, WIsconsin has been alloted BIL LSLR funds in the following amounts: Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2022: $48,319,000; FFY23: $81,203,000; FFY24: $83,278,000, plus reallotment of unclaimed FFY22: $4,148,000.The past two years, WDNR has made these funds available to communities and water systems for lead service line replacement. For state fiscal year (SFY) 2024, Wisconsin designated $74,140,560 to water systems for such projects, using its federal fiscal year (FFY) 2022 and FFY23 BIL LSLR grants. For the current funding cycle, SFY2025, Wisconsin hopes to continue its acceleration of lead service line replacement, making $106,719,888 in BIL LSLR funds available. The lead service line replacement projects on the SFY2025 Project Priority List total $177,400,000, demonstrating the need for these funds. The LSRI’s 10-year deadline will spur communities to bring forward even more LSLR projects to make full use of Wisconsin’s BIL LSLR funds.
While Wisconsin has been doing all of this, Milwaukee, too, has been a rising star among municipalities by revising its Mandatory LSLR ordinance to include an LSLR Expansion Program, and taking advantage of the BIL LSLR funds. About eight years ago, the city adopted an ordinance mandating lead service line replacement for all schools and day care centers, in the case of a broken or leaky lead service line, or when water main replacement or street repairs adjacent to lead service lines take place. Homeowners were charged a portion of the cost to replace the LSL – roughly $1,600 per property. Motivated to expand its lead pipe replacement efforts in light of the BIL funds, Milwaukee revised its LSLR ordinance to eliminate the homeowner cost for city-initiated projects. Under the LSLR expansion program adopted as part of the 2023 revisions to the ordinance, the city is ramping up its replacement efforts to replace lead pipes more efficiently through block-by-block LSLR projects. In fact, the city’s program overhaul has increased the expected total number of lead service lines replaced from a rough average of 1,000 pipes annually pre-BIL, to 2,400 pipes in 2024 - more than twice the amount replaced in any prior year, and more than its planned goal of 2,200. To take full advantage of the BIL LSLR funds to achieve the city’s goal to replace all LSLs by 2037, Milwaukee will have to ramp up replacements even more steeply.
Milwaukee’s expansion of its lead service line replacement program also brings equity to the forefront. Milwaukee is one of the few cities in the country with a prioritization plan to ensure neighborhoods likely to suffer the most severe impacts from lead poisoning get their pipes replaced first. In consultation with a community-based group, Coalition for Lead Emergency (COLE), and following a public engagement process, Milwaukee included in its revised mandatory LSLR ordinance three indicators to prioritize where LSLs will be removed first under its LSLR Expansion Program: 1) the area deprivation index (ADI), which is a compilation of social determinants of health; 2) the percentage of children found to have elevated lead levels in their blood when tested for lead poisoning; 3) the density of lead service lines in the neighborhood. Milwaukee weighted these factors as follows: ADI = 60%; elevated blood levels = 30%; density of LSLs = 10%. In vetting these indicators, Milwaukee found that the ADI and elevated blood levels tracked very closely, which is not surprising, given that studies show that key social determinants of health are good indicators of communities at elevated risk of suffering greater impacts from lead poisoning where lead hazards are present. Following a public engagement process, the city determined that these risk factors should be weighted more heavily than the density of lead service lines, and is prioritizing neighborhoods where children are at greatest risk for severe impacts from exposure to lead through drinking water, rather than simply those with a greater presence of lead lines. These factors showcase Milwaukee’s commitment to environmental justice principles.
In 2023, Mayor Johnson announced a 20-year goal for replacing all the lead pipes in Milwaukee. Following the EPA’s announcement of the proposed LCRI rule, Milwaukee Water Works released a statement endorsing the proposed rule’s ten-year goal for replacing all lead service lines. Mayor Johnson has also expressed support for the ambitious ten-year goal in public forums since the proposed LCRI was announced. Additional plans to achieve the goal include partnering with local community groups to get the word out about the program and increase response rates to improve the pace and cost efficiency of LSLR projects in prioritized neighborhoods.
The current and future progress of Milwaukee’s lead service line replacement program would not be possible without the BIL’s expansion of federal funding for LSLR. Even more funds will be needed to fully achieve the ten-year goal in Milwaukee, in Wisconsin, and throughout the country. The BIL funding, now coupled with the finalization of the LCRI and its ten-year mandate, provides an excellent foundation. And Milwaukee, with its LSLR expansion program, equity plan, and greater public outreach that not only center equity but also enable the city to find cost-efficiencies, is off to a good start. With the promulgation of the LCRI, other cities in Wisconsin and other states who may be lagging behind will be more likely to follow Milwaukee’s example and ramp up their own LSLR efforts.
This LCRI announcement by President Biden in the last month before the presidential election is a bold way to leave office, but doing it in Milwaukee and in the State of Wisconsin makes a lot of sense. Since taking office, the Biden-Harris Administration has provided a lot of good funding, momentum, and now regulations. For Milwaukee and Wisconsin, this all comes on top of a solid foundation of leadership and commitments already in place.
The authors wish to acknowledge and thank the hardworking staff of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR), the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, the City of Milwaukee, and Milwaukee Water Works for their leadership on lead service line replacement.
[1] The source of these numbers is utility-reported data in 2023 Wisconsin Public Service Commission annual reports, which differentiate between utility-owned and customer-owned lead service lines, thus counting segments and not the full length of the service line. In many (but not all) cases, the public and private LSLs listed in annual reports will be at the same property address, so these numbers are not additive. In addition, these numbers do not include service lines of unknown material or galvanized service lines that may contain lead.
[2] We do not yet have complete information for 2024, which is when BIL funds have been used.
