Hoping that a price tag of zero will entice reluctant property owners, the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County on Thursday dropped plans to charge residents to replace lead water lines and will instead offer the service for free.
Just months after launching a program that could have cost homeowners and businesses up to $3,200 to swap out potentially dangerous pipes, MAWC board members reversed course. The policy shift is designed to jump-start a voluntary removal effort that has yet to sign up a single participant.
“We are looking out for our customers and hope they will participate in the program,” MAWC board Chairman Randy Roadman said.
The authority last year launched an $11 million project funded through a low-interest state loan and grants from the state and federal governments to replace as many as 1,000 lead and galvanized pipes over the next three years. Nine communities — Vandergrift, North Vandergrift, East Vandergrift, West Vandergrift, Hyde Park, Apollo, North Apollo, Leechburg and West Leechburg — are included in the inaugural program.
As originally conceived, the program charged property owners up to $3,200 for replacements of tainted pipes on privately owned land, with financing options through low-interest loans. The authority covered the cost to replace lead pipes from the water transmission lines to the edge of private property. Under the initial plan, the cost to replace lead pipes from the curb into a home or business was to be paid for by property owners.
“We decided to reverse course,” MAWC business manager Brian Hohman said. “Our main goal is to do these replacements as fast as we can so we can get more funding. We’re happy to offer this to our customers, and it will expedite the work.”
Time is a factor. The authority needs to spend down its state and federal grants before the agency can apply for a new round of funding that could enable it to expand the lead-line replacements to its other service areas.
Officials said the offer of free lead-line replacements, rather than a $3,200 bill, is expected to entice more property owners to participate in the voluntary program.
Authority personnel are expected to reach out to property owners in East Vandergrift in the coming days seeking their consent to participate in the free lead-line replacement program as testing continues throughout the other communities in the pilot program.
MAWC sells water to more than 123,000 customers in five counties: Westmoreland, Allegheny, Armstrong, Fayette and Indiana. It estimates about 3% of its water system, as many as 10,000 service lines, is made of lead or galvanized metal. Officials said water quality testing has repeatedly found no evidence that lead has leached into the water system.
“Not once has lead been found in the water,” MAWC Manager Michael Kukura said.
Still, the authority continues to operate under a federal mandate that impacts every water provider in the country to remove lead pipes by 2037.
The effort to find those lines was initiated several years ago through voluntary surveys. Work over the last year to verify the existence of lead lines has intensified, with a recent focus on East Vandergrift, where contractors used a vacuum truck to dig holes at intersections where public transmission lines intersect with private property.
More than 300 test holes were dug last month, and 155 lead lines were identified, Kukura said.