City of Oshkosh offers help for lead service line questions and replacement

OSHKOSH, WI—(WISS)—At the start of the year, Oshkosh residents, about 16,000 of them, began receiving letters detailing the status of their property’s lead service lines. James Rabe, Director of Public Works for the City of Oshkosh, said the letters are informational and are not meant to alarm anyone.

“ At this point in time, there’s nothing that is required to be done. It is an annual notification requirement, so if you do nothing, you will continue to get these letters every year,” Rabe said.

Rabe added that the letters may seem strongly worded and scary.

“A lot of what’s in that letter was EPA-mandated language. There’s a lot in there that we were not allowed to change,” said Rabe. “There may be a lot more information. And it may be a little bit difficult to process, but that’s because a lot of that language was mandated by the EPA.”

3 Versions of the lead letter

The city mailed three versions of the letter to water customers. 

One letter told customers that a “confirmed lead water service line” is at their address.

One said that galvanized pipe was confirmed at their residence and will need to be replaced.

“ The EPA considers galvanized pipes that were once downstream of lead to be considered galvanized-requiring replacement,” Rabe said. “Because those lead particles sometimes detach from the lead pipe, and they would reattach to that galvanized pipe.”

The third version of the letter said it is unknown what type of service line pipes are at the address.

“Of those almost 16,000 letters, a little over 6,700 of those had an unknown material,” Rabe explained. “So that’s a lot of unknowns that if we can work with those property owners and identify – If it’s a private site unknown and identify what that is – we can either get them off of the mailing list or confirm which it is. Then they would get a different letter next year if they’re not off the list.”

Rabe said that to find out exactly which side the problem pipes are on or on which side the pipes are unknown, residents can visit the database to find out. 

“The  letters don’t specify which side it is. There is a link in the letters to the database, the dashboard database online. You can go to there. Click on your property, and it’ll tell you what the public side is and what the private side is. So if there’s one that says unknown, you can go to that website, click on your property, and it’ll tell you if it’s the public side or the private side that’s unknown or both,” he said.

Next Steps

Rabe recommends residents with unknown pipes on the private side call the city water distribution division, which will send someone to check out the pipes for free. He said residents can also call the Public Works department directly.

For the residents who have either lead water service lines or galvanized pipes, Rabe says it’s not right now, but the time will come when they have to be replaced.

“ At some point in time, we expect the EPA will say, ‘Okay, now thou shalt replace!’” Rabe said. “And we expect that when they start, they will give the utility 10 years to get all of them replaced.”

Rabe says now is a good time to start thinking about replacing lead or galvanized water service lines because there are grants available that can reduce, and in some cases eliminate, the property owner’s portion of the replacement costs.

“It is a very good time to start thinking about–start planning for it. I think one of the very important things that’s going on right now is we are still getting money from the DNR through the Safe Drinking Water Loan Program to assist property owners in replacing their private side lead services,” Rabe said.

Assistance for Property Owners

There are two programs available to help property owners. The first will fund 50% of the lead or galvanized water service line replacement on the private side of the property up to $2,700.

The other program is specific to Census Tracts 4, 7, or 12 and can provide 100% financial assistance to eligible properties. 

 ”I think the biggest thing withthe financial assistance programs–we don’t know when they’re gonna run out. We don’t know when they’re going to stop,” Rabe said. “At this point in time, we do know we’ve got money for the two programs. And we will continue to apply every single year until the state and federal governments say, ‘No, we’re not funding that program anymore.’”

Residents who want to apply or have any questions about the financial assistance programs are encouraged to reach out to Maria Fletcher, who will be handling the programs. Fletcher’s phone number is (920) 236-5258.

To schedule a service line inspection, or for information on Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and EPA requirements, please visit www.oshkoshwater.com.

Hear the complete interview with James Rabe in the featured audio with this story.