DECATUR — The galvanized steel water pipes extending from the meter of Karl Ziemer’s 100-year-old home to the city’s water main were replaced last October. And the improvement was obvious the moment water from the new connection started flowing through the spigot.

“I’ve got so much pressure now it actually whistles,” Ziemer, a retired Decatur water department employee, told Herald & Review. “It would never do that before. And I’m like, ‘oh my, I can’t believe this.’”

But the benefits of replacing these antiquated pipes extend beyond the immediately noticeable quality-of-life upgrade that comes with the more intense flow from a shower head or faucet. Ziemer and his wife also no longer have to worry about the potential health concerns associated with owning a home connected to a lead service line.

Lead is a naturally-occurring metal found throughout the Earth. It was used in a number of products over the years such as gasoline, paint and plumbing pipes.

But it can have harmful health effects in high doses, particularly among children and pregnant women. As such, the U.S. government has gradually phased out the element’s use, banning it’s use in new plumbing systems in 1986.

Like in most of the older homes in Decatur, Ziemer’s service line itself was not made of lead material. But it was long connected at the curb box — which separates the public and private sides of a water line — via a pliable lead “gooseneck.”

Since lead particles can attach to the surface of galvanized pipes, any downstream from one of these goosenecks or any other pipe containing lead will eventually need to be replaced.

Last January, the Decatur City Council unanimously adopted a major policy change hoping to expedite this process, agreeing to cover 50% of the costs up to $3,000 for all residential lead water line replacement work. For commercial property owners, it’s up to $5,000.

It is one of many such “cost-share” programs that have sprouted up across Illinois and around the country as an incentive from local governments to water customers to replace their lead lines.

It is meant to ease a burden often placed on those who can afford it the least. Private lead service line replacement in Decatur can cost anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000, according to city officials.

Most of the lines still in existence are connected to older homes concentrated in the urban core neighborhoods with the lowest property values and highest levels of poverty.

So far, Ziemer is among 29 Decatur homeowners who have benefited from the program. Another 10 are in the pipeline. And more are interested.

“I wouldn’t have been able to do it on my own,” Ziemer said. “So by the city paying for half of it, now I can afford this. And so my wife and I made the decision to go ahead and we decided to get a loan… from our bank. We went ahead and replaced the water service.”

The program represents a proverbial drop in the bucket when considering the nearly 7,000 lead service lines that need to be replaced within Decatur city limits by 2047 to comply with a law signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2021 — or even sooner under new regulations proposed by the U.S. The Environmental Protection Agency. But it is still more than some other communities have done.

“So in many respects, I would argue that despite the burden of this unfunded mandate pushed on local governments by state and federal governments, by coming at this early and gradually, I think we’re exceeding the intent of the mandate,” said city manager Scot Wrighton.

Still, many water customers could be left with lead pipes absent additional help. And where exactly that help may come from remains unclear.

According to a state report, the total cost of lead service line replacement statewide ranges from $5.8 billion to $10 billion, or between $232 million and $400 million annually.

In Decatur, city officials estimate the total cost of replacing all the city’s pipes could be up to $69 million over 20 years. The city earmarked $643,000 in the 2024 budget for the lead service line replacement program and projects to spend more than $4.4 million annually in each year for the rest of the decade.

Initial plans were to start replacing hundreds of lines in 2027 as required under state law. But that timeline has recently been expedited.

The U.S. EPA last November proposed long-awaited new drinking water regulations that include a 10-year deadline for most water systems to eliminate lead lines. This would push things forward at least a decade.

As a result, the Decatur City Council earlier this month voted to authorize Wrighton to sign loan documents that would fund a five-year lead service line replacement project that would swap out nearly 2,000 lines, or about a quarter of those total in need of replacement.

The idea being that if the city can start its replacement program in 2025, it could be eligible for state and federal loans to help offset the cost on the city.

"We intend as much as possible to use state revolving loan funds," said Public Works Director Matt Newell. "And the state is also currently offering loan forgiveness for a portion of those loans. We feel that it’s important for us to get into the queue for receiving those loans."

In some ways, the city’s cost-share is just a small way to get ahead of what is already in the pipeline.

In 2021, Illinois lawmakers passed and Pritzker signed the Lead Service Line Replacement and Notification Act, making Illinois the third state in the country to require the full replacement of lead service lines after Michigan and New Jersey.

Under the law, municipalities and other owners of community water supplies are required to develop and maintain a complete inventory of lead service lines and eventually implement a comprehensive plan to replace those lines. The first inventories were submitted in April 2022 and updated earlier this year. An initial replacement plan must be filed with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency by next April with a final one due in 2027.

There were more than 667,000 lead service lines reported across the state as of the inventory taken this spring. But the actual number is believed to be much higher — perhaps as much as 1.49 million when taking into account the large number of pipes with an “unknown” material composition.

The amount can vary significantly by city.

Decatur’s water department reports 6,883 lead service lines in need of replacement. Of these, 4,341 need to be replaced from the water main to the meter — or both the public and private sides.

An estimated 2,519 pipes need to be replaced from the curb box to the water meter, which is the customer’s side of the water line. Another 27 pipes need to be replaced from the curb box to the water main tap — the public side of the line — in cases where customers have already replaced the pipes on their end.

Bloomington Water Director Ed Andrews said the city has a total of 32,091 service lines which include 5,866 lead service lines, 3,211 unknown or not suspected lead service lines and 5,722 unknown or suspected lead service lines.

Normal Water Director John Burkhart said the town has only seven lead service lines that are both within the town’s and private property lines and 40 other lead services lines that are within private property lines.

But even after taking inventory, many places are still not 100% certain of the true scope of the problem. 

So much so, the Decatur council last month approved a $307,825 "daylighting" project that will excavate down to 627 water service lines — some chosen at random and others where the pipe material is unknown — to get a better accounting of the accuracy of the city’s count.

"We found that our inventory is not incredibly accurate — we’re finding about 50% accurate on the city side and about 75% accurate on the private side," Newell said. "So it’s imperative that we get our inventory better updated.

Regardless, city officials insist that Decatur’s drinking water is safe and the numbers back up their assertion.

According to test results obtained by Herald & Review, lead was detected in just two of 30 homes tested in 2017. Of that, the maximum level detected was just 5.9 parts per billion. In 2020, lead was detected in seven out of 33 homes with the maximum amount being 7.5 parts per billion.

The once-every-three-year tests are mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Action levels are triggered for lead of 15 parts per billion found in more than 10% of customer taps tested.

Even then, exceeding the action level alone is not a violation of the EPA’s lead and copper rule. It simply requires the water supplier to educate their customers about lead and suggest actions they can take to reduce their exposure to lead.

Since Decatur’s cost-share was implemented in January 2023, the city has paid out more than $54,000 to 29 water customers. And ten more are currently pending, according to city water services manager Randy Miller.

All the customers who have taken advantage of the program so far reside in the urban core, the older section of the city where water lines were generally installed before 1940.

When the program was approved, city staff said that all affected water customers would receive notice of their eligibility for the program. This was a point reiterated by council members who were concerned that many residents simply would not get the message.

“My biggest concern is how we’re going to make sure that information gets to the individuals in that area, especially since… most of the individuals who are having the issue are in the urban core, which predominantly are minorities or individuals who are impoverished,” said then-Councilwoman Dana Ray. “So I want to make sure that we do our due diligence besides just the handout that goes out sometimes in the bill because most people might not read that.”

Despite that explicit request, the city’s outreach has been limited in scope.

Though it was passed in an open meeting and information is available on the city website, city staff confirmed that they have only proactively reached out to homeowners with known issues with their water service.

Part of this is out of necessity: there’s only a limited amount budgeted for the program. State and federal resources will likely be needed, not to mention the ramp-up time allowed under law.

Wrighton insisted that the city has “no secrets to keep from the public at all about this.”

“The reality is that very few people just wake up in the morning and say, ‘Gee, I think I’ll replace my lead service line,’” Wrighton said. “It happens because there’s a problem with it. It’s broken or there’s a leak or they did some excavation and somebody hit it. I mean, any number of reasons it’s been exposed. And so that’s really where these requests come up.”

“But I certainly expect that we’re going to very, very rapidly reach the point where depending on the level of funding that we have… that we’ll be more public about it,” Wrighton added. “So we’re not trying to keep it a secret by any means.”

Councilman David Horn, in an interview with Herald & Review, urged “ a much stronger advertising campaign” for the cost share program.

“That direct notification will be a more effective approach to addressing this issue than having the city council meeting or perhaps announcing in a press release that this program was available,” he said.

The city has also been doing lead service line replacements as they’ve done street maintenance projects.

“So our posture right now is that when we’re in an area — replacing a street, making major street upgrades, doing water sewer work — while we’ve got it all dug up anyway, let’s just replace these private water services… that have lead in them,” Wrighton said.

“And then in areas that we’re not just doing that on our own, then we’re using this reimbursement program,” he said. “And, of course, especially targeting people who might have a tougher time paying for it on their own.”

Since 2021, the city has replaced 27 lead service lines from the main to the curb box and 22 lines on the private side, according to the water department.

While so far very targeted in scope, Decatur’s cost share is more than many other communities are doing.

As Illinois municipalities prepare for the mandated replacement of lead service lines, there are many signaling to their customers that absent significantly more state and federal funding, they will not receive help on the cost for replacing their portion of the lead service line.

In most cases, the water service provider will replace the entire line with the customer being charged for their portion of the project. If they can afford it, that is.

State law prohibits most partial lead service line replacements as it can actually increase the levels of lead in a water system. However, an exception is made if a property owner denies access to their portion of the line.

Under this scenario, the public side of the service line will be replaced while the water customer will have to sign a waiver indicating that they will not grant access for private side replacement. Instead, they will be given a point-of-use filter meant to reduce lead levels in water until the remaining pipes are replaced.

Decatur is not the only city looking to get ahead of lead service line replacement.

In Chicago, where the majority of the state’s lead service lines are believed to be, the city waives up to $5,000 in permitting fees for customer-initiated replacements. The city also offers an income-based program for those under 80% of an area’s median income. The program is limited by the funding available any given year.

The Chicago suburbs of Mt. Prospect and Palatine are offering to reimburse two-thirds of private side replacement up to $10,000. In Lombard, it’s 75% of up to $5,000.

Some are more generous: Wheaton, for instance, is planning to replace all 1,100 lead service lines within city limits at no cost to property owners. Some are less generous. In Joliet, there is no cost share, but the city offers payment plans to help customers pay their share of the cost.

Some programs have proven popular. Glencoe, for example, approved a cost-share of 50% up to $10,000 one month after Decatur approved its program. The program, budgeted for $250,000, per the Chicago Tribune, was “exhausted” of funds by October with the city confirming that “any outstanding reimbursement requests will be deferred for payment until 2024.”

Decatur officials have also acknowledged that the program would be limited any given year based on funding levels and the ability of contractors to keep up with demand.

As of now, that burden would largely fall onto local governments.

“Absent securing additional federal and state funding, community water supplies will be solely responsible for financing lead service line replacement, and this will likely create operational deficiencies and prolong much needed lead service line replacement,” wrote the Lead Service Line Replacement Advisory Board in a June report.

In Bloomington, Andrews said the replacement of lead service lines will be addressed after the city council approved an increased water rate in November 2023. 

Bloomington residents using the most common size of residential water pipe would, on average, see their monthly water bill increase from about $17 to around $40 in the 2027 fiscal year. That’s assuming they use 300 cubic feet, or just under 3,000 gallons, of water each month.

The goal is to raise $400 million for various projects to ensure compliance with new state and federal mandates about water quality, including about $100 million earmarked for lead pipe replacement.

“We have developed a plan to target that and we went ahead and erred on th side of caution to adopt a more aggressive 10 year replacement plan than what some of the other timelines were earlier on,” Andrews said.

In Normal, the town council approved a $50,000 Lead Service Line Replacement program, funded through the Water Department Capital Investment Budget, in 2021 to replace all remaining lead service lines.

Burkhart said that through the program Normal will front the cost to replace any lead lines on the property owner’s side at the time of replacement. Property owners would then enter a repayment program at zero percent interest.

“The biggest challenge we’ve seen so far is just getting people on board with replacing lead lines,” Burkhart said. “There’s a cost associated to it and the town is sensitive to that but that’s why we’ve offered this zero interest loan program to help fit people’s budgets easier.”

Federal sources could come from the $15 billion set aside directly for lead service line replacement in the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law or from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, which can be used for replacing service lines among other projects.

The advisory board suggested other possible revenue streams such as a per-1,000 gallon charge on water bills or a water bottle tax. At the local level, funding could come from water rate increases, property and sales tax increases or additional fees.

Whether a cost share is in place or not, there is currently not enough funding to ensure that lead pipes get taken care of.

“If the cost of the replacement is split with the property owner, in addition to rate increases or revenue generation strategies in which the (community water source) only plans to partially fund the replacement of the service line, there will be instances where funding is insufficient and acts as a disincentive for (lead service line replacement), likely leading to an increase in waivers rather than replaced lines,” the advisory board also found.

Burkhart said there is also a bit of misconception from the public for why the town is wanting these lines replaced.

Someone who has lived in the community for 30 years and never has had an issue with their service line may not feel inclined to replace their lines and sign a waiver but that could lead to a bigger problem for water utilities to deal with when those lead service lines are still out in the system, Burkhart said.

“People should work with the local water utility services and just get it replaced,” Burkhart said. “It makes life easier for the water utility, which is selfish on my part, but from a health standpoint, it’s the best option that a homeowner has.”

If not for Decatur’s cost share, Ziemer could have been one of those asking for a waiver. The $3,400 cost for replacement was “a little out of my range,” he said. Though $1,700 is no small number, he said the reduced cost made the project possible.

“When I first heard of this program, I was like, ‘Where do I sign up?’ So they told me all the things and I’m like, ‘Okay, it looks like I’m going to do this.’ And so, I did it,” he said.

The contractor came October 13, dug up the front yard of his corner lot, pulled out the old galvanized pipe, replaced it with a new copper pipe and then reconnected his water service.

Matuesz Janik of The Pantagraph contributed to this report.