Under a federal regulation finalized last year, the City of Birmingham Regional Water Works must replace all lead and some galvanized service lines, which take water to homes and buildings from large pipes that run under streets.

Finding and replacing all those lines by the 2037 deadline will be an immense undertaking for Alabama’s largest water utility, and it’s complicated by funding challenges and questions about whether the water works has authority to replace privately owned lines.

“The Lead and Copper Rule Improvements is a major issue for every water utility in the country,” Patrick Flannelly, a senior vice president for Arcadis North America, an engineering consultant for the water works, told the utility’s new board during its first work session May 19. “What the federal government is essentially saying is, ‘We know you don’t own the service lines. We know you didn’t put them in. We know you don’t know what they are, but you’ve got to go figure it out. And if they’re lead, you’ve got to replace them.’”

EPA began regulating lead in drinking water in 1991 through the Lead and Copper Rule, which was updated in 2021 with the Lead and Copper Rule Revisions and in October 2024 with the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements.

“The final rule will significantly reduce the adverse human health impacts of exposure to toxic lead in drinking water,” EPA stated when announcing the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements.

According to EPA and medical research, there is no safe level of lead in drinking water. Consequences of exposure include permanent brain damage and developmental harm in children and cardiovascular disease as well as kidney and reproductive problems in adults.

Lead service lines are typically the most substantial source of lead in drinking water, according to the EPA. Service lines connect main lines to individual water meters and then to homes and buildings. Larger pipes in water systems usually aren’t made of lead. The LCRI also requires public water systems to replace galvanized metal service lines that have ever been downstream of lead pipes because that material can absorb and release lead.

Notifying customers their homes or businesses might be served by lead lines was an early step the EPA required community water systems to take, and Birmingham’s regional water works mailed letters in November to comply with it.

The letters to residents and owners of structures built before 1989 notified them of their service-line material type, if known, and, if not, instructed them to examine their pipes to determine material type.

EPA also required water systems to provide and make publicly available an initial, baseline lead service line inventory by Oct. 16, 2024. The Birmingham regional water works’ inventory is now available here, along with its customer guide to lead safety.

According to a statement the water works provided to BirminghamWatch, the system has identified 471 service lines as lead or galvanized requiring replacement. The material used for about 39,035 of approximately 220,000 service lines in its system remains unknown, and the utility is working to identify the composition of those lines.

To comply with the LCRI rule, the utility needs to determine what the unknown materials are in the next two years.

“We have to be able to tell the state our best information and inventory of where there is lead or galvanized downstream of lead on all service lines in the system,” Flannelly said. “This is a massive amount of work.”

Under the LCRI, community water utilities also must make a service-line replacement plan publicly available by Nov. 1, 2027.

At that point, service-line replacement must begin as well. Flannelly said the water works will need to replace 10% of lead service lines each year for 10 years.

Who Will Pay?

Mac Underwood, general manager of the water works, said the water works’ current cost estimate is approximately $8,000 per complete service line replacement.

LCRI states that EPA strongly encourages water systems to offer full service line replacement at no direct cost to the customer wherever possible. But this is not a requirement.

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management announced in March it has set aside up to $292.6 million for Birmingham’s regional water works to replace service lines made of lead or galvanized metal requiring replacement (GRR) under LCRI. The funding comes from the bipartisan infrastructure law through EPA’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, ADEM stated.

ADEM set aside that amount based on a pre-application and preliminary engineering report the water works submitted, the agency said in a statement.

“However, no funds have been released because the project is still in the application and review phase,” the statement read.

Underwood said the funding would be administered in “tranches,” which are multiple smaller portions or segments. The initial funding amount available to the water works is $22 million, he said.

“This application along with the associated work plan must be processed before application can be made for additional tranches,” Underwood said, adding that the water works intends to apply for additional funds in the future.

He said up to 50% of these federal funds directed to Alabama for distribution through the State Drinking Water Revolving Fund can be awarded as grants that don’t have to be paid back, and Birmingham’s regional water works is requesting and anticipating that percentage in grants. The remaining funds would be in the form of low-interest loans.

If the water works replaced all service lines currently known to be lead or galvanized requiring replacement, along with all service lines made of unknown material, the cost would be approximately $316 million, according to the estimate of $8,000 per service line. Underwood said he expects total costs to be much lower, based on the number of lead service lines the utility has found to date.

When asked if customers might have to fully or partially pay for lead or GRR service-line replacement, Underwood said that in the short term, the utility is planning to replace service lines using only the federal funding it anticipates receiving through ADEM.

Government Work on Private Property a Complication

The LCRI requires public water systems to replace all service lines under their control, and it states service lines are under a system’s control when it has legal and physical access to them.

It’s unclear whether Birmingham’s regional water works has legal access to the lines that run on private property.

An Alabama attorney general’s opinion from 2001 states that a city can’t, through a water utility it owns, perform work on water lines on private property unless enabling legislation permits it, there’s a health hazard and the cost is charged to the property owner.

The situation for Birmingham’s regional water works is slightly different since the city doesn’t own the utility. A request for clarifying information from the Attorney General’s Office has not received a response.

Underwood said service lines in the water works’ five-county network of pipelines are privately owned. Historically, the utility has maintained the portion of the lines between main pipes and meters, and customers have been responsible for maintaining sections between meters and structures. Those sections are usually on private property.

The water works is not currently authorized to work on private property and is trying to determine how it can replace the section of service lines from meters to homes and buildings, Underwood said.

When BirminghamWatch asked water works managers what hurdles are preventing the utility from having the needed authority and what the utility is doing to clear them, they reiterated only that the water works “is studying how it will replace service lines from the meter to the house.” They also said the utility is developing a plan to remove all lead service lines by the EPA deadline of Dec. 31, 2037.

In May, Mark Parnell, who was general counsel and a deputy general manager for the water works at the time, said the utility would have to get property owners’ permission to replace service lines on private property.

The LCRI outlines actions water systems must take to gain property owner consent, where needed. It requires a reasonable effort, defined as four attempts. If those attempts are unsuccessful, water systems must try to get permission again when property ownership changes.

Erik D. Olson, an attorney and senior strategic director for health at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said water utilities could ask the appropriate governing bodies to grant any other necessary authority.

“If it’s the biggest water utility in the state that wants to be able to fully replace the lead service lines, they could go to the state attorney general, they could go to the city council, they could go to the mayor, they could go to the state legislature and say, ‘Look, we really want to fix this. Can you fix it please?’”

Work-Arounds Used by Other Utilities

In other states and cities, utilities have found ways to gain legal access to service lines requiring replacement, Olson said. In New York state, for instance, an argument was made that utilities couldn’t use public funding to replace service lines on private property, Olson said, but the state comptroller’s attorneys said there is an exception when there’s a public health threat.

“And in fact, when it’s a public health concern, that it’s authorized, especially if it’s part of a big program to do that, where it affects multiple properties,” Olson said.

In New York City and Benton Harbor, Michigan, where property-owner permission was needed, the cities adopted an ordinance that would require property owners to replace service lines at their own expense by a certain date if they didn’t grant the utility access to replace the lines for free, Olson said.

“They had no problems with getting access to the houses,” Olson said.

Water utilities that get cities to adopt ordinances or states to approve laws that authorize them to fully replace service lines save a lot of money in the long run, he continued.

“You can do entire streets all at once,” Olson said. “You can integrate it into other infrastructure projects, like water main replacements. You don’t have to go back to the same houses to replace part of the service line.”

That’s something Birmingham’s regional water works will have to do because it has been partially replacing lead and galvanized service lines as part of its ongoing main pipeline replacement program.

The LCRI will bar partial replacement of lead service lines and galvanized lines that require replacement as of Nov. 1, 2027. That’s because replacing only part of a service line made of lead or galvanized metal that has been downstream of lead can significantly increase lead levels in tap water for weeks or months, according to EPA and health research. The rule makes some exceptions to the partial-line-replacement ban, including for infrastructure work such as the Birmingham regional water works’ main-line replacement program, but even in those cases, it requires utilities to fully replace service lines when they have access to them.

Federal funds awarded through the EPA’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund for lead and GRR service line replacement can’t be used to partially replace those lines.

When replacing aged main pipelines to reduce leaks in its system, Birmingham’s regional water works has been replacing the portion of service lines between main lines and meters as well as a small section of service line on the other side of meters, while leaving the remaining portion of service line that runs to the home or building, Underwood said.

According to water works managers, during the past five years the water works has partially replaced 59 lead service lines, 1,105 galvanized service lines and 2,424 service lines made of unknown materials. They said the utility will continue the practice of partial service line replacement as part of main replacement projects until EPA guidelines specify otherwise.

Olson said this doesn’t make sense from a health or a cost perspective.

“So they’re going to have to go back and re-dig up the same lines that they’ve already partially replaced, which is just a waste of money,” he said.

Replacement Methods and Questions About Plastic Service Lines

During main pipeline replacement projects, crews install all the new water main pipes under streets first, water works managers said. They then connect the new water main to the water system and test it. Once the new water main is deemed ready for service, the crew connects the water main to each meter by replacing that portion of the service line. Paving takes place after all work is finished, managers said.

If the service line is made of lead or galvanized metal requiring replacement, crews will have to return by 2037 to replace the portion of the service line between the meter and the home or building.

Olson said water utilities in other communities are fully replacing service lines all the way to the structure by pulling new copper lines through old service lines, which doesn’t require digging up the old line and takes only one to two hours, or they’re using directional drilling.

“Frankly, it’s a lot cheaper than doing a partial service line replacement and then going back a year or two later and replacing the rest of the service line,” he said.

Water works managers said the new service lines the utility installs are made of cross linked polyethylene, called PEX, which is a type of plastic. Using this material prevents accelerated galvanic corrosion that can increase lead levels in tap water and occurs when two different metals are joined. But Olson said plastic service lines are not the best choice.

In 2022, the Natural Resources Defense Council, along with 18 other health and environmental groups, created a guiding principles document for the replacement of lead service lines. It advises installing lines made of copper rather than plastic, which is less studied as a drinking-water conduit.

“While plastic is cheaper, there are significant questions about plastic pipes including whether they will leach chemicals, whether they will allow permeation of toxic chemicals into the water from contaminated groundwater, and how long they will last,” the guide states.

Olson said studies show plastic lines will likely require replacement much sooner than copper ones, making them more expensive in the long run.

LCRI Challenged in Congress and Court

The LCRI itself is facing uncertainty.

An Alabama congressman led the charge earlier this year to reverse the LCRI and prevent EPA from ever instituting a similar regulation. U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer introduced a resolution in January to block the rule under the Congressional Review Act, which gives Congress the power to permanently reverse a rule finalized late in a previous session. U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., introduced the same resolution in February.

The resolution did not advance to the Senate.

But the LCRI is still under threat from a lawsuit filed by the American Water Works Association, a water utility trade association to which Birmingham’s regional water works belongs.

AWWA states it agrees with the goal of replacing lead service lines but argues the LCRI is impractical logistically and financially. The association has argued that the cost of replacing lead service lines nationwide could top $100 billion, and most of the cost would fall to consumers through higher water bills.

But water utilities can, as Birmingham’s regional water works has, apply for a large amount of federal funding that is available for lead and GRR service-line replacement. In addition to the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and bipartisan infrastructure law, potential funding sources for reducing lead in drinking water include the EPA’s Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act grants and Water Infrastructure Finance Innovation Act loans.

The bipartisan infrastructure law alone provides $26 billion that could be used to replace lead and GRR pipes.

Kaline Gabriel, manager of regulatory and scientific affairs for the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, another group to which Birmingham’s regional water works belongs, said the federal funding isn’t enough to cover the nationwide replacements.

“While we are certainly grateful for Congress allocating that money, there’s still some significant gaps in where the funding is needed,” Gabriel said.

EPA’s cost calculation for replacing lead and GRR service lines nationwide is $50 billion to $80 billion, according to the 7th Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment. The agency projects the total number of lead service lines in U.S. states, territories, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia to be 9.2 million and estimates replacement costs to be $5,328 to $9,015 per line.

When finalizing the LCRI, EPA estimated the benefits of replacing lead and GRR lines would be worth $13 billion to $25 billion per year through reduced health care costs and increased school attendance and economic productivity.

The EPA under the Trump administration hasn’t decided whether it will defend the regulation against AWWA’s lawsuit. On July 1, the administration filed a motion in federal court asking for a third extension to give the EPA more time to review issues presented in the case and related litigation.

But the EPA can’t simply abandon the rule due to a change in administration. That’s because of the Safe Drinking Water Act’s anti-backsliding provision, which requires each revision to drinking water standards to be at least as protective as the former regulation.

“Once you have a final drinking water standard, EPA is prohibited from weakening it,” Olson said. “So I think that’s part of why EPA keeps postponing the date that they’re going to inform the court what they’re going to do, because they’re trying to figure out legally how they can justify this.”