MUD launches $157 million, 10-year project to replace Omaha's lead service lines (2024)

Working inside a square hole at the edge of a city street, a contractor recently connected a shiny new piece of copper water line to a shutoff valve and to a tap in the water main serving homes on the 5100 block of Omaha's Evans Street in Omaha.

The piece was the last needed to complete the replacement of the old lead service line that had piped water into a house in the middle of the block for decades. The crew earlier had bored a shaft under the front yard and run new copper from the basem*nt to the shutoff valve, which sits below the edge of the sidewalk.

The piece is among many new copper lines the Metropolitan Utilities District plans to install — at no charge to homeowners —as part of an initiative aimed at finding and replacing the estimated 16,000 lead and unknown service lines in its territory. MUD serves more than 227,000 water accounts.

The utility's Detect, Correct and Protect program is expected to take about a decade and cost an estimated $157 million. The utility already has procured $52 million in grants and loans from three different sources, enough to cover about five years' work, and will be seeking additional funding.

In the past, replacing service lines has fallen to the customers who own them, and some have spent the money over the years. Homes built after the 1940s generally don't have lead lines. But a 2021 federal rule change, tied to the recognition that there is no safe level of lead in drinking water, required water utilities nationwide to replace all the lead service lines in their service areas, said Stephanie Mueller, MUD's vice president of customer experience.

70 replaced lead lines replaced, hundreds more will be soon

Work to replace the lines began in June. So far, 70 or more lines have been completed, said Lenny Palmisano,a senior engineering technician with MUD. A few were replaced earlier through a pilot program.

Plans call for finishing 200 or more by year's end and ramping up to 1,200 or more annually thereafter, he said. The work is being done by local plumbing companies under contract with MUD.

"We're trying to get rid of all the lead pipes," Palmisano said.

Most of the lead service lines in MUD's service area are east of 72nd Street. MUD has determined that about 12,000 of the 16,000 lines on its target list do contain lead.

The utility this year began sending annual letters to both homeowners and residents notifying them that they may have lead lines, said Megan Walter, MUD's manager of customer engagement.

So far, the utility has posted about 20,000 letters, she said. All of those intended for homeowners have been sent, and the utility is working its way through letters to homes' residents. Those who both own and live in homes may get two letters.

"We are making doubly sure our customers are receiving notification that there's a lead line at these properties," Walter said.

Customers who are notified, however, don't have to take any action at this point, she said. MUD will contact them when it's ready to replace the lead lines and when it's trying to determine the composition of lines of unknown makeup, which comprise about 4,000 of the 16,000 lines the utility expects to replace.

"They don't need to do anything atthis time," Walter said. "We'll be in touch with them."

How to check for lead and what to do next

If a customer's line has been identified as containing lead, galvanized or "lead status unknown," the utility will test their water at no charge, Mueller said.

Lead is not present in the district's raw water, the treated water that leaves its plants or the water in its water mains, officials said. However, lead may leach into drinking water through customer-owned lead service lines, older faucets that have brass parts containing small amounts of lead or plumbing that includes lead solder.

Because of those potential sources, results of the tap water testing MUD conducts tend to vary, Mueller said. The utility uses corrosion control techniques, maintaining a specific level of acidity and alkalinity in treated water to create a deposit of calcium carbonate on the inside of pipes to prevent leaching.

Walter said MUD will contact homeowners three to six months after lead line replacement and offer to test their tap water for lead again at no charge.

"I really am hoping customers take us up on that, because we're hoping to really give them the results of what it looks like after replacement," she said. "Then they'll know whether they continue to have an issue inside their home."

If lead is present in tapwater, customers then can take action on their own to replace interior lead pipes or lead-containing fixtures.

MUD is focusing initially on areas with a high concentration of lead lines so crews can replace all of the lines on a block before moving on, Walter said. This week, for instance, contractors are scheduled to replace lines at three homes on one block in northeast Omaha

The utility also will home in on disadvantaged areas, homes with high lead levels and areas with high concentrations of young children. MUD is coordinating with the City of Omaha, which, in 2016, took over efforts to reduce lead hazards in Omaha begun by the Environmental Protection Agency and others in the late 1990s. That's when parts of east Omaha were included in the Omaha lead Superfund site.

Efforts have involved testing and replacing soil in yards that exceed federal standards for lead and stabilizing lead-based paint in homes. Some of those properties also have lead service lines.

"We're working in tandem so we don't have to come out and disturb customers' properties more than once," Walter said. For the same reason, MUD also is coordinating its efforts with city paving projects.

Palmisano said the utility in recent years also has replaced lead lines when it encounters them while making repairs. The service line crews replaced on Evans Street, for instance, had been leaking.

Replacement takes about a day, Walter said, although water typically is only off for a few hours. Restoration of the property, however, may take longer.

On Evans Street, crews filled an access hole in the yard while making the last connections then reseeded the area and covered it with straw matting to keep the grass seed in place. Palmisano said they also would fill the access hole in the street. The city will repave the street and sidewalk.

After lines are replaced, MUD provides customers with a Brita water pitcher with six-month filter certified to remove lead, which the EPA recommends they use for six months for drinking and cooking.

Walter said the filters are intended to filter out any possible lead particles that might be disturbed during the replacement process. The utility also provides instructions asking customers to remove and clean aerators, the screens at the ends of faucets and shower heads, and to flush water lines.

For the next six months, customers whose lines have been replaced also should run water through the plumbing in their homes for two minutes after periods when no water has been used for six hours or more before they run water for drinking and cooking.

Mueller said there will be no passthrough costs to ratepayers for the first portion of the project, since MUD has secured state and federal funding for the work. The funding is comprised of $40 million in loans through the state drinking water revolving fund, an $8 million allocation from the state cash fund and $4 million in federal funds earmarked by U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Nebraska. Some of the loans will have to be repaid, but a portion will not.

"It's possible (the project) will require ratepayer contributions in the future, but I think we've anticipated this funding will take us through several years," Mueller said.