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Lessons from Four Illinois Mayors Interviews

We interviewed mayors and utility staff from four Illinois communities who are working to comply with the Illinois state mandate to replace lead service lines.

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A New Era For Water Management: Harnessing GIS Innovations And Collaboration For A Resilient Future

Hopeworks equips interns with the skills to develop models, analyze data, and create visualizations, to support water utilities in need of technical support with service line inventory and replacement projects.

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Denver Water-wide

Community Engagement in Denver, CO

Denver Water is a national model for lead service line replacement and has one of the most comprehensive programs in the country, designed to replace all lead service lines in Denver Water’s service area over the course of 15 years.

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Innovative Partnership in Wausau, WI

Wasau utilized a community-based public-private partnership approach for lead service line replacement.

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USDA loan helps replace lead water lines in Kingsford

USDA loan helps replace lead water lines in Kingsford

Kingsford secured a USDA loan to remove lead service lines.

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Stretching the Dollar to Get the Lead Out: Lead Service Line Contracting

This contracting guide highlights key contracting components that utilities should consider including in their programs to ensure funding is utilized effectively.

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Volunteers check for lead water pipes in Lancaster homes

Volunteers check for lead water pipes in Lancaster homes

Americorps volunteers help collect inventory information in Lancaster homes.

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Milwaukee’s Formula for Lead Line Replacement

This Waterloop podcast episode highlights Milwaukee’s success in replacing LSLs.

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Workers replacing lead pipes in a community

Stretching the Dollar to Get the Lead Out: Good Decision-Making and Planning for Lead Service Line Cost Efficiencies

This policy brief highlights strategies that utilities and/or state agencies should consider adopting to make informed, holistic decisions when spending money on LSL programs.

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Lead pipe on grass

Stretching the Dollar to Get the Lead Out: Advancing Lead Service Line Programs with Low or No-Cost Policies and Practices

This policy brief highlights low or no-cost policies and practices that have proven successful for many water utilities, and can be replicated in an effort to lower the overall total price tag of lead service line replacement nationwide.

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Milwaukee is one of the few cities in the country with a prioritization plan to ensure neighborhoods likely to suffer the most severe impacts from lead poisoning get their pipes replaced first. In consultation with a community-based group, Coalition for Lead Emergency (COLE), and following a public engagement process, Milwaukee included in an ordinance three indicators to prioritize where LSLs will be removed first:

  1. The area deprivation index (ADI), which is a compilation of social determinants of health
  2. The percentage of children found to have elevated lead levels in their blood when tested for lead poisoning
  3. The density of lead service lines in the neighborhood.

Read more here.