Listen to this article

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced a new grant program on Monday. The program will provide municipal water systems with the funds to conduct community-based education efforts in support of ongoing or upcoming lead service line replacement projects.

These grant funds, provided by the Biden-Harris administration as part of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, will help support outreach efforts by fostering collaboration between municipal systems and trusted local ambassadors, such as community-based organizations, to ensure consistent, clear communication and public education with residents, property owners, consumers, and community leaders throughout project planning and implementation. Applications for the Lead Service Line Replacement Community Outreach Grant will begin being accepted on August 29, 2024.

“Every Wisconsin resident should be able to get clean, safe drinking water straight from their tap. Replacing our state’s lead service lines is no small feat, and effective outreach is critical to the success of this effort and ensuring consumers, private property owners, and local community leaders know what resources and tools are available,” Evers said. “Ensuring Wisconsin residents have clean drinking water has been a priority of my administration since day one, and while Republican lawmakers have failed to provide meaningful federal investments to remove lead from our pipes and water, we are grateful to the Biden-Harris administration, federal partners, and the bipartisan infrastructure bill for supporting this important work in Wisconsin.”

According to a 2023 report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum, more than 37,000 lead service lines have been replaced or shut off since 2018. That’s more lines replaced or shut off in just five years than in the previous two decades.

A municipal public water supply system is a public water supply system that serves 15 or more connections, or that regularly serves a community of 25 or more residents for at least six months of the year, and is owned by a city, town, village, county, sanitary district, or other governmental entity or governmental institution. It is critical for communities to completely replace lead service lines, both those on private property and those on public property, because lead exposure is dangerous to people of all ages, but especially children, infants, and pregnant women. When people absorb lead through drinking water, it builds up in their bodies over time, causing damage to the brain, nervous system, red blood cells, and kidneys. Replacing lead service lines is one of the best ways to minimize the risk of lead exposure from drinking water.

“This new grant program will provide much-needed funding to support lead service line replacement,” said Steve Elmore, DNR’s drinking water and groundwater program director. “This is an ideal time for municipal systems to build trust and cooperation with their customers while ensuring the quality of their drinking water.”

Evers declared 2019 the Year of Safe Drinking Water to highlight the need for meaningful investments that ensure Wisconsin residents have clean, safe drinking water that is free of harmful contaminants such as PFAS, lead, and nitrate. Since then, Governor Evers has championed efforts to replace lead household service lines, including signing Executive Order No. 36, which created a position within the Wisconsin Department of Health Services to serve as the coordinator of the state’s efforts to address Wisconsin’s lead crisis through collaboration among state agencies. Most recently, in his 2023–25 biennial budget proposal, the Governor proposed allocating $200 million to replace lead household service lines through the Safe Drinking Water Loan Program and amending current law to allow utilities to provide financial assistance in the form of 100 percent grants to support lead household service line replacement for property owners. Unfortunately, both provisions were eliminated by Republican lawmakers in the Joint Committee on Finance. Governor Evers also proposed additional state funding for lead pipe replacement in his 2019-21 and 2021-23 budget proposals. Unfortunately, Republicans in the House blocked these important investments as well.

Additionally, in October 2023, Governor Evers announced an investment of over $402 million to support drinking water improvement projects in 106 communities across the state. This investment included more than $30 million for the City of Milwaukee to replace lead service lines.

Evers said Wisconsin is one of four states leading the renewed replacement effort by participating in the Lead Service Line Replacement Accelerators Program. In May, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that Wisconsin would receive more than $83 million under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to help the state identify and replace lead service lines. In total, Wisconsin will receive more than $900 million in additional funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to support the state’s environmental credit programs.