3,200 Lafayette homes targeted in $40M lead water line replacement plan

Project is expected to take 10 years in some of the city’s oldest neighborhoods. Mayor says city’s water tests safe ahead of federally mandated project

• Thanks to the Art League of the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette, sponsor of this Based in Lafayette edition. Visit the Art League’s Bling on a Budget sale 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 22, and 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 23, at the Art Museum, 102 S. 10th St., Lafayette. Purchase donated gently used costume and fine jewelry, scarves, ties, watches and purses at incredibly low prices. Secret Bid auction for select gold, sterling and designer items. Benefits Art Museum and art educator scholarships.

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• Sponsorship help for this edition also comes from Purdue Musical Organizations. The 91st Annual Purdue Christmas Show is the must-see event of the year! Gather your family and friends, and create lasting memories as you sing along to your favorite songs and marvel at the extraordinary Purdue student talent on display. Get tickets here.

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LAFAYETTE OUTLINES $40M LEAD, GALVANIZED WATER LINE REPLACEMENT FOR 3,200 HOMES

Details about a 10-year, federally mandated lead and galvanized water line replacement project will start landing in mailboxes of roughly 3,200 homes in Lafayette this week.

Lafayette officials on Thursday also announced a series of public meetings, starting next week, ahead of a first phase of the city’s Lead Service Line Replacement Program set to start in early 2025 and targeting the 867 homes in the city’s north end.

Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski said the work – taking in about 8% of the city’s 40,000 service lines – will include homes built before 1935, when local homebuilders working in the city phased out lead and galvanized pipes for water lines.

Roswarski said the project, prompted by a deadline to replace all lead pipes in the United States as part of a new EPA rule, is estimated to cost more than $40.35 million by 2034.

The first phase will include $5 million set aside from a $2.5 million grant and a $2.5 million, zero percent interest loan from the State Revolving fund, awarded in July. Roswarski said the city was looking for other grants and funding sources to pay for the work but that the city was approaching it as if it would need to cover costs through water rates and other means.

Individual homeowners will not have to pay to replace service lines from water mains to the house with copper lines.

(Photo: Unsplash)

Roswarski also said the project comes at a time when Lafayette’s lines continue to test below limits for lead contamination, including mandated testing at customers’ taps. Lead pipes can corrode and contaminate drinking water, causing a range of disorders, from behavioral problems and brain damage to low birth weight to heart disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Indiana Finance Authority had already set a deadline for lead service line inventory plans for October 2024 to check utilities ahead of work on the federal mandate.

“Lafayette water supply is safe,” Roswarski said. “We test it continually. There is no naturally occurring lead has been detected in our water supply, and we do all the regular testing that's required.”

City officials said a database of the addresses targeted in the project will be available in the coming days at www.lafayette.in.gov/lslrp.

Steve Moore, Lafayette’s water works superintendent, said tests in the past year showed where lines include lead or galvanized lines, either at the street, entering the home or both. Andrew Gordon, with city contractor Wessler Engineering, said the city went into the project estimating that it would find closer to 12,000 lines to replace, rather than 3,200.

A map presented Thursday shows the bulk of those 3,200 homes are in the oldest parts of Lafayette, east of Sagamore Parkway North and north of Teal Road.

The city’s plan starts with three zones in the northern end of the city, including the Monon, St. Lawrence-McAllister, Lincoln and Hanna neighborhoods. Gordon said that first phase could take eight to 10 months.

Moore said the city will contract with licensed plumbers to do the work.

What happens if your home included? Moore said homeowners will be contacted about two weeks ahead of necessary work to get permission to get onto the property and into the home where service lines connect. He said the replacement process will involve boring a new line underground, avoiding trenching whenever possible. Sidewalks, hardscaping, landscaping and grass disturbed in the process will be repaired to “try to leave your property as close to how it was found or better,” Moore said. Moore said the city would do what it could to avoid trees. Work typically will take a day, though Moore said it could take longer if contractors run into issues. After the service line is replaced, the city will do water quality tests to confirm no lead is in the water supply.

What if your home is included but you don’t want to wait up to 10 years? Moore said that cost would be on the homeowner.

What if you buy a house marked for service line replacement? The city water works will notify a new owner about the replacement program when service is set up.

The first community meetings: The city will hold public meetings on the first phase of the project at the McAllister Center gym, 2351 N. 20^th St.:

• Noon-1 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20.

• 6-7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 25.

• Noon-1 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5.

Roswarski said other meetings will follow as work shifts to other neighborhoods in the coming years.

What is being sent to residents in homes with lead or galvanized service lines? Here’s a sample copy of the letter, with details about the project and information about checking for lead in water. The letters also went out in Spanish.

Sample Letter Lafayette Water Service Line Replacement

90.8KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

More questions? The city has a frequently asked questions feature about the project at www.lafayette.in.gov/lslrp. Roswarski encouraged people to let the city’s water works know if they had questions. “Please don’t speculate,” Roswarski said. “Please don’t get information from some source other than us. There’ll be a lot of folks talking about this and a lot of people sharing information. We understand that. But we’re just asking, please, contact the city of Lafayette directly and hear directly from us … so we make sure that you get that accurate information.” The water works number is 765-807-1700.

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THIS AND THAT/OTHER READS …

PURDUE’S ASK OF THE STATE BUDGET COMMITTEE: Purdue President Mung Chiang took a funding request to the State Budget Committee Wednesday, asking for $90 million in state money in the next two-year budget toward a $160 million project tied to the university’s new One Health initiative. Indiana Capital Chronicle’s Leslie Bonilla-Muñiz had this report on Chiang’s request, plus those from Indiana University, Ivy Tech and other state schools: “Indiana colleges, universities outline big capital requests.” (The session also offered some salty reaction from state lawmakers about how IU handled campus demonstrations tied to the war in Gaza.) Chiang also asked the state to consider an “Indiana Opportunity Fund” to help compete for federal funding requiring state matches. More details are in Bonilla-Muñiz’s story.

Here’s more on the One Health project, when the university launched the concept at a trustees meeting in August and called the Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Research Building its No. 1 ask for construction funds from the General Assembly: “Purdue will ask state help for $160M facility, first salvo in One Health initiative.” The facility, which would include a home for the Purdue Institute for Cancer Research, was aimed for a fall 2028 opening on the south campus, likely in vicinity of Lilly Hall and the soon-to-be-built 186,000-square-foot building designed for the colleges of Pharmacy and Nursing, according to information presented to Purdue trustees over the summer. Chiang said over the summer that the One Health initiative would look to realign research priorities and shift the reporting structure of several parts of campus to build off the university’s established strengths. Among the changes, the project would put the College of Health and Human Sciences, College of Pharmacy and the College of Veterinary Medicine under a recently created vice president of health affairs.

A WORD, OR THREAT, FROM THE LT. GOV.-ELECT: From Indiana Daily Student reporter Mia Hilkowitz: “Indiana Lieutenant Governor-elect Micah Beckwith threatened the Indiana Daily Student and IU in an X post Tuesday over the IDS’ Nov. 7 front cover, which featured a photo illustration of President-elect Donald Trump accompanied by quotes from his former political allies. In the post, Beckwith labeled the page “elitist leftist propaganda” and said it ‘needs to stop or we will be happy to stop it for them.’” More on Beckwith’s latest social media salvo as he prepares to settle in as Gov.-elect Mike Braun’s No. 2: “Future Lt. Gov. Beckwith threatens IDS over front page: ‘We will be happy to stop it for them.’”

Hilkowitz followed with this Q&A with Beckwith about claims about the student paper and his view that higher education institutions are “indoctrination centers:” “Beckwith alleges ‘covert’ funding, suppression at IU during interview with IDS: Read the transcript.”

Thanks today for support from Purdue Musical Organizations, presenting the 91st Annual Purdue Christmas Show, Dec. 7-8. Get tickets here.

Thanks to the Art League of the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette, sponsor of this Based in Lafayette edition. Visit the Art League’s Bling on a Budget sale 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 22, and 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 23, at the Art Museum, 102 S. 10th St., Lafayette.

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