Springfield’s thousands of service lines that are made out of lead will need to be removed within 10 years due to the Illinois Pollution Control Board’s decision to adopt a 2024 federal rule. The move likely occurred as a precaution amid fears the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will ditch the Biden-era rule that sought to remove lead lines across the country within a decade.
Lead poisoning is a life-threatening affliction; “there is almost no function in the human body which is not affected by lead toxicity,” according to a 2015 National Institutes of Health report. While lead pipes have a protective coating lining the interior and are chemically tested twice a year in Springfield, water regulators and public health experts are in agreement that all lead pipes need to be replaced. Service lines carry water from a utility’s water mains to residential and commercial building faucets.
The timeliness of replacing the pipes is where the federal and state government argument diverges from local water utilities, which say the deadlines imposed are not practical. A national water utilities association filed a challenge to the EPA’s ruling one month after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election. The American Water Works Association reasoned that the timeline proposed by the federal rule is unrealistic for municipalities to be in compliance.
Last year, environmental organizations were unsure of how the EPA would handle the case as it continues to fight states over a variety of regulatory decisions. But the EPA bucked its tendency to oppose state environmental policy by actually defending the ruling installed under the Biden administration. Illinois was one of nine states, along with the District of Columbia, to join the EPA in defending the rule.
Todd LaFountain, water division manager for CWLP, told the Springfield City Council Aug. 25 the Illinois Pollution Control Board’s decision ultimately nullifies any outcome of the case in federal appeals court – which will have oral arguments begin on Sept. 30 in Washington, D.C.
“They are planning to keep that 10-year replacement window here for Illinois, regardless of what happens on a federal level,” he said.
That change is significant, as Illinois passed a law in 2021 mandating lead service line replacement at a slower rate; under that law, Springfield would have nearly 30 years to replace its thousands of lead pipes.
Ward 7 Ald. Brad Carlson asked LaFountain if he was confident that CWLP would be able to remove the nearly 9,000 remaining lead pipes buried under Springfield’s roadways and properties in a decade’s time.
“No, I wouldn’t say I’m confident that we can meet that. We will do the best we can… We are doing everything we can to reduce our overall liability,” LaFountain said.
He also told the council that he’s confident in CWLP’s ability to keep removing the lines but has concerns about private contractors being able to quickly remove lines. CWLP is accepting bids until Oct. 2 for lead service line replacement in the upcoming fiscal year.
“Even if we get (to) around 7,500 lead service lines (remaining by January 2027), we’ve never done 750 in a given year. I could assign three crews to it at water distribution and get it done on the public side. I’m not so confident that our private contractors could keep up with this on the private side,” he said.
Last year, LaFountain told Illinois Times he agrees that lead pipes should be removed but estimated that implementing the EPA’s rule would cost Springfield between $150 million and $200 million. That’s roughly $15,000 to $20,000 per lead line replaced – almost $10,000 more than the EPA’s 2019 average estimate.
“We’re all in agreement, both here in Springfield for sure and across the industry as a whole, that it’s time to remove the lead service lines from the ground – it’s time for the lead to go,” he said. “Currently, the funding sources are not there to do it in a responsible manner.”
