Detroit’s Water and Sewerage Department is ramping up the replacement of its lead service lines – removing upwards of 1,000 aging lead lines per month – through a variety of funding sources, including an $85 million state grant.
DWSD set a goal last year of changing out an estimated 80,000 lead lines in the next decade. Director Gary Brown said Friday that DWSD has already surpassed its initial goal of replacing 150 lines per week.
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“We want to do 250 (lines) a week, 1,000 a month,” said Brown, noting DWSD removed 830 lead lines last month. “Let’s get these lines out of our city so our residents are no longer at risk.”
Brown joined Friday with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) Director Phillip Roos to provide an update on the city’s Lead Service Line Replacement Program. Duggan and Brown laid out the 10-year timetable for removing all the city’s lead lines last year. Overall, the undertaking pegged around $800 million, Brown said.
Detroit’s drinking water remains below the lead action level at 9 parts per billion (ppb). The current state action level for lead is 15 ppb and will move to 12 ppb in January 2025.
Duggan said the city has been fortunate with its water quality.
“But, here’s the truth: These lead lines were put in 80, 90 and in some cases 100 years ago. Over time, they will deteriorate,” he said during a Friday news conference in the city’s Russell Woods neighborhood. “(But) Detroit is different than a lot of other cities in America. We didn’t wait until we had a health problem. We are getting ahead of it and replacing those lead lines before we have any sign of it.”
Roos said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration has invested more than $958 million in lead line removals and implemented the strongest lead and copper rule in the country. In February, the governor proposed a budget that calls for an additional $40 million for lead line replacement work.
“We’re committed to rebuilding our water infrastructure and ensuring that every family in Michigan has the confidence that their drinking water is healthy,” Roos said.
Water infrastructure investments nationally became a focal point after the city of Flint in 2014 infamously switched its water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River.
Service line material is either copper, lead or galvanized steel. DWSD is replacing lead and galvanized service lines that deliver drinking water. Lead service lines are primarily found in single-family homes, duplexes and small storefronts and are not typical in larger buildings including schools.
Around the Great Lakes, the top four cities with the most lead service lines are Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland and Detroit, Brown said.
In 2018, prior to the revised Michigan Lead and Copper Rule, DWSD began replacing lead service lines at no cost to customers as part of its Capital Improvement Program. Those replacements took place when DWSD was on the same street replacing the water main.
Detroit owns the portion of its service lines from the water main to “stop boxes” or the on and off valves on the front of homes. Property owners are responsible for service lines from those stop boxes to inside the house. Therefore, DWSD must gain owner or occupant permission to replace lead service lines. From 2018 to 2022, DWSD replaced more than 3,000 lead service lines during water main replacement projects throughout the city.
In May 2023, DWSD started a neighborhood-by-neighborhood approach to replacing lead lines.
Neighborhoods are prioritized based on the density of housing built before 1945, whether there’s a significant number of children and seniors in the area, and whether there’s a high number of low-income households based on Census tracts.
Since implementing the approach, DWSD has completed more than 4,000 replacements in 15 neighborhoods across every City Council district, officials said.
Brown said DWSD’s workforce is 54% Detroiters. DWSD currently has a 12-employee team dedicated to lead service line replacements and intends to add more crews as additional funding is received. Separately, in 2022, Brown appointed DWSD Diversity, Opportunity and Inclusion Director Tiffany Jones, for contractor outreach to advertise lead line replacement work to local and regional contractors, including in-person contractor workshops.
For a list of current and upcoming neighborhoods, visit www.detroitmi.gov/lslr. DWSD is working on a live map that will be available on the city website in the near future, said DWSD Director Brown.