The town of Elon is forging ahead with a search for lead and other potential hazards in its utility lines despite some concerns about the potential cost to replace these obsolete pipes.
Elon’s town council gave the town’s staff the all-clear to continue this inventory on Tuesday in order to check the few hundred residential taps that remain uninvestigated since this initiative began several years ago. Its members nevertheless made this decision on the understanding that they may ultimately have to jack up utility rates to cover the replacement cost for pipes that no longer meet federal clean water standards.
It was thanks to a grant from the state that the town originally launched this venture in 2022 to eliminate unsafe materials from the infrastructure that brings water to the town’s residential customers. This project seeks to identify lines made either of lead or galvanized steel, which may contain lead if originally fed by lead piping, on either side of the water meters that serve the town’s 2,111 residential customers. So far, the town’s contractors haven’t located any lead piping, although they’ve come across 66 locations with galvanized steel on one or both sides of the water meter.
The firm of Alley, Williams, Carmen and King, which provides civil engineering services for the town, has overseen this inventory as part of its services to the municipality.
Josh Johnson, an associate with the Burlington-based firm who doubles as Elon’s town engineer, told Elon’s town council that he and his colleagues initially used readily available records to identify locations with modern piping. This “desktop inventory” ruled out more than half of the town’s residential customers. Since then, contractors in Elon’s employ have dug up another 500 or so sites and discovered the 66 aforementioned locations with galvanized lines.
Johnson acknowledged that the 366 locations left to investigate include some of the more challenging areas for the town’s contractors to work.
“Part of the problem is that we’ve knocked out the low hanging fruit,” he went on to explain when he briefed the council on Tuesday, “and as you’re going through the process [of checking the remaining lines], you may find you have things in the way.”
In any event, Johnson said that it will cost between $300 and $500 to inspect each location that remains on the to-do list. He went on to estimate a total cost of $144,400 to check the remaining lines, although he added that, under federal law, the town can stretch out the work over a period of 10 years.
Johnson observed that federal regulations also require the town to replace any galvanized piping that its contractors find. He projected a total cost of $252,000 to replace these lines at the 66 locations already identified. He added that the same 10-year timetable could be applied to these upgrades, and he alluded to the possibility of state and federal grants to offset the expense.
With the specter of federal law hanging over this project, the council wasn’t in much of a position to tell Johnson to leave the galvanized lines in the ground. Its members were nevertheless wary of the potential cost of this work, which will have to be bankrolled by revenue within the town’s freestanding water and sewer fund.
The council’s concerns were further heightened by a prospective hike in utility rates in the event that the town is unable to scare up any more grants to continue this project. Meanwhile, the potential for a backlash from residents was also very much on the minds of the town’s leaders as they considered the cost of this project.
Earlier that evening, the council had received a complaint from a resident who objected to the ever-increasing cost of services like public water and sewer. Elon’s mayor Emily Sharpe recalled these remarks during Johnson’s subsequent report to the council, noting that it’s quite possible the town’s search for hazardous materials in its water system could drive up its utility rates even more.
“Nobody wants lead in their drinking water,” she declared. “So, we have to do everything we can. But we also have to think about the cost…This is another example of state and federal policies that say we have to do things while they’re limiting our ability to raise money.”
