Waltham & Lexington Will Benefit from $100 Million in Funding to Remove Lead Service Lines

The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority announced that its Board of Directors has approved a program to make available $100 million in interest-free loans to its member water communities to fully replace lead service lines. Waltham and Lexington are both eligible for this program.

“I applaud the state and the MWRA for its efforts to ensure all residents in Massachusetts have clean, safe drinking water,” said Rep. Tom Stanley. “I am proud to work with Representative Lawn and Senator Barret on this issue to ensure our state is a proactive leader in removing lead service lines from all homes, creating healthier communities and families.”

MWRA has an aggressive and effective program to address lead in customers’ homes which includes a stable and well-protected water supply and an effective corrosion control program begun in 1996. These efforts have resulted in the MWRA system, as a whole, being consistently below the Lead Action Level since 2004. However, some individual communities have exceeded the Lead Action Level and many homes still have lead service lines.

The program was developed at the suggestion of the MWRA Advisory Board, which represents the interests of the cities and towns served by MWRA. MWRA already provides financial assistance to member communities to improve local water systems so that the high quality water that MWRA delivers can make it all the way to the consumer’s taps.

MWRA is the process of updating a survey of community lead service lines, but current estimates are that as many as 28,000 – or 5.6 percent of the total 500,000 service lines – contain lead.

The estimated average cost to fully replace a lead service is typically between $3,000 and $5,000. Based on that estimate, MWRA believes the $100 million program should cover removal of all lead services in its service area. Partial replacements which remove only the portion in the street, but leave the portion on private property would not be eligible for the new program, as current research clearly indicates little public health benefit from a partial replacement.

Under the proposal, each community would develop its own program, tailored to their local circumstances. The pace of spending will depend on the level of interest by both communities and homeowners, and on any future regulatory requirements for lead service line replacement. The funds will be paid back to MWRA by communities over 10 years at zero interest.