River Forest is making progress on replacing lead service lines in the village but reaching compliance with state requirements will take time and money, Jack Bielak, director of public works and engineering, told officials at the July 8 Village Board meeting.
Under the Lead Service Line Replacement and Notification Act, the village is required as the owner and operator of the community water supply to develop, implement and maintain a comprehensive water service line material inventory and replacement plan for lead service lines within the water distribution system, Bielak said in a memo to Matt Walsh, village administrator. It was common for service lines that were installed prior to the mid-1950s to be made of lead, he said. Following that time, the village required service lines to be copper pipe.
Bielak said the village has completed the first step of the program and compiled the initial inventory of service line materials. He said of the 3,183 connections in the village, 2,487 are unknown and may have a lead pipe on either the village side of the service line, the private side or both. Of the remaining connections, 1,230 are not lead and 468 are lead. Bielak said the numbers are changing as resident surveys are returned. He noted that less than a week ago, there were 2,504 unknown, 1,205 not-lead and 459 lead.
Officials are estimating replacement of 150 to 200 service lines in the Year 1 replacement program. Officials have budgeted $2 million for Year 1, $750,000 of which will be covered by a grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
Following that pace, Bielak said the village would be able to replace all known lead and unknown service lines in 17 years, which would meet the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency requirement.
In response to a question from Cathy Adduci, village president, regarding financing, Walsh said staff members are investigating a program that offers low-interest loans that might be forgivable. Bielak said an application for that type of loan was submitted in April.
Bielak said Year 1 replacement locations include high risk/priority locations such as schools and religious institutions, as well as homes where the village has record of public side replacement of the service line. He said staff members started by sending letters to 159 locations with unknown customer side service lines. After responses reduced that number to 140, staff members placed door hangers on locations that had not responded. He said he hopes to seek bids for the project in October or November with April 2025 the estimated completion target.
The village also continues to provide an assistance program called “Get the Lead Out” to residents who do not want to wait for the village to cycle through their area. The cost-share program provides partial reimbursement to residents totaling 50% or up to $7,500 for the cost of replacing the entire service line.
Regarding how much the village should pay for cosmetic repairs around the water meter when replacing a service line, officials directed Bielak to only provide basic repairs such as concrete and minimal wall patching.
“Keep it simple,” said Jonathan Keller, village clerk.