Facing $100 million in costs to replace lead pipes, Newport Water seeks customer help

Newport’s Water Division, which services a region of customers throughout Aquidneck Island, has been saddled with the immense task of identifying and replacing all lead pipes, public and private, in its jurisdiction, an effort they’re hoping customers will help with.

“Our ultimate goal is lead zero,” Department of Utilities Director Robert Schultz said. “There isn’t an immediate issue”

The Water Department is currently undergoing an information campaign, mailing out thousands of postcards asking residents of Newport, Middletown and Portsmouth that use Newport’s water supply to check if the service line connecting the municipal water supply pipe to their homes is made of lead and to report the results to the city through a survey. These service pipes are usually the responsibility of the homeowner to fix or replace, however, following recent changes to state and federal regulations on lead pipes, the city is now responsible for taking an inventory of all lead service pipes, public and private, and replacing them within the next 10 years, according to a letter RIDOH sent out to municipal utilities departments in January.

Since private service lines are typically maintained and replaced by homeowners, the city does not have a complete record of what buildings still have lead service pipes. They estimate that about 10-to-13% of service pipes may contain lead. However, Schultz said the scale on the lead pipes in the city are rather stable, meaning the lead isn’t impacting water quality in a way that is causing major health problems that they have seen.

“In my entire tenure with the city we haven’t had any lead service lines that are directly causing childhood blood lead levels by testing, typically those are lead paint or the thing we’re seeing most common now is internal plumbing or actually fake fixtures, so the fixture looks like it's supposed to be lead-free…but when you go and test it that fixture has a high lead content,” Schultz told the Newport City Council during a budget hearing on May 2.

Besides the unknown number of private lead service pipes the city would need to replace, the Department of Utilities is also facing the unknown of how to pay for said replacement. In total, including administrative costs and costs to replace the water mains, Schultz estimated that the city could be facing anywhere from $100 million to $105 million. Schultz said the department is waiting to hear back about a few grants it has applied for and is waiting to see what kind of loans, forgiveness or other financial aid the state or federal government is willing to provide.

The state received $28.65 million of the $15 billion the set aside for lead pipe replacement through the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Of those funds, Providence and East Providence received $12 million and $100,000 respectively for their lead pipe replacement programs.

If a funding solution is not found, Schultz said the $100 million bill will probably have to be shouldered by Newport Water Division’s ratepayers, a group that is already burdened with the cost of utilities.

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“We’re one of the more expensive utilities in the state,” Schultz said. “There’s a reason why we’re on an island, we have older infrastructure and the water quality, untreated, is challenging so it requires a lot of energy to meet the standards or exceed the standards.”

How do I check for lead in my home pipes?

Lead pipes are a dull, silver-gray metal that magnets do not cling to. They are easily scratched using a key or coin and will reveal more silver-gray metal when scratched. If your service pipe is hard to scratch and a magnet clings to it, it may be galvanized steel, whereas a pipe that reveals an orange metal when scratched could be made of copper.

The survey the city is asking residents to take walks homeowners through how they can check their pipes and includes an article from NPR that goes into further detail.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Newport Water Division facing $100 million cost to replace lead pipes