It’s not easy to stay informed and give feedback to some local water companies, according to Anna Coleman, the environmental justice organizer for Pittsburgh United.
The Wilkinsburg-Penn Joint Water Authority, for example, still doesn’t allow residents in the room for board meetings — and it doesn’t broadcast or livestream the meetings either. Instead, it allows a maximum of four or five residents to sit in the lobby and listen on a single speakerphone. Coleman said she once showed up five minutes after the meeting started, and the door was locked and nobody answered.
"It's a strange process for giving public comment where you don't have any visual ability to see what's going on,” she said. "It's hard to imagine if they're listening, if they're walking around or eating dinner or whatever is happening in there. You have no idea.”
Coleman and others say there is special need for openness now, as water authorities are replacing lead lines that pose a threat to children especially. Lead is a neurotoxin that, among other effects, can lower a child’s IQ.
Lead levels in the Wilkinsburg authority's water are among the highest in Allegheny County — and they've been increasing. The most recent tests, in 2021, showed the concentration of lead had increased 14% since its last test in 2018. Its drinking water is now only 2 parts per billion away from exceeding federal limits.
But the agency, which serves a small portion of eastern Pittsburgh and 10 nearby municipalities, doesn’t have a place on its website that explains its plan for replacing those lines. Coleman said she's learned a bit about its plans by attending board meetings and speaking with authority leaders, but many residents she’s heard from say they know very little about the work.
And Coleman says she still isn't sure what proportion of the lead pipes will be replaced under the current plan, or how the utility is deciding which homes to focus on first.
Much of the debate over lead lines has focused on the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, which faced a years-long crisis over elevated levels of the toxin. But Coleman credits the agency with trying to be transparent about the solution.
"PWSA does a very good job of sharing out where they are working, having community meetings, much more transparency around what they're actually doing," she said.
In fact, some contend, the city's other water providers could learn something from the authority.
A lack of transparency about lead lines is a problem, according to a report produced by Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey’s transition team. Pennsylvania American Water, a private water company that serves most of the South Hills, doesn’t make it easy to track information about its lead program either, the report contends.
“[The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority] has made significant progress on lead line replacements and in limiting the base levels of lead in the water,” the report says. “The City should track the progress of both systems through its policies and plans, as water quality in our drinking water remains at risk.”
Gary Lobaugh, a spokesperson for Pennsylvania American Water, didn’t respond to an interview request. But he sent an email that said the company started replacing lead lines in April in Brookline and that its initial work had been delayed by the pandemic. He said the company would replace all its lead lines by 2034.
“Pennsylvania American Water does not have a problem with lead service lines or lead levels in the drinking water,” his statement reads. Still, it continues, “We believe that removing the risk of customer-side lead service lines over time is the right thing to do for the health, safety, and peace of mind of our customers.”
PWSA has replaced more than 9,000 public lead pipes and nearly 6,000 private ones. It estimates there are around 8,000 public lines left to replace.
PWSA publishes a map that shows, according to its best records, whether the pipes near your home are made from lead or not. The map shows where the authority is currently replacing lead pipes and where it has already done so. And it will test your drinking water for lead for free. It has pages of information about what it’s doing about lead and about what its customers can do. You can even download the results of every home lead test performed in the city.
Other local water authorities and companies do not do most of this.
PWSA’s transparency, of course, came after the crisis that erupted in 2016 when lead levels in its water rose above the federal threshold, right at the moment when the public’s attention was focused on Flint, Michigan. PWSA began replacing lead pipes began in 2017 under an agreement with the Department of Environmental Protection.
It was a mad dash to replace enough lead lines in the agreement's first year. But since then, the work has become routine, said Will Pickering, the CEO of PWSA. And it has continued even after a new corrosion-control treatment has reduced lead levels well below federal limits. PWSA is trying to remove every public lead pipe in its system by 2026. After a little more than four years and $150 million in public grants and loans, it’s about halfway there.
“It's going to be difficult. I will definitely admit that,” Pickering said. “But the [federal] infrastructure bill really gave us that boost again, to think that it's doable.”
Pickering attended a ceremony next door to the White House last year with Vice President Kamala Harris, where PWSA received accolades for replacing both public and private lead lines without any cost to homeowners. Many water companies have been replacing only public lines, which can lead to elevated lead levels in the home.
PWSA has also prioritized replacing lead lines in neighborhoods and homes with lower incomes and more children. And it recently began a program to replace lead lines in daycare centers. “Sometimes it's a little more expensive than just looking at it from a straight infrastructure perspective and not factoring in that public health consideration,” Pickering said. “But we do think it's the right thing to do.”
And one advantage of being a public utility, he said, is that PWSA can make decisions that are focused on the public interest: Private utilities, he said, also have to earn a profit for their shareholders.
Wilkinsburg-Penn Joint Water Authority, the other public utility that serves Pittsburgh residents, has just started its program to replace 1,100 public lead lines over the next 18 months with a grant from the state, according to an email from its executive director, Doug Komandt. Komandt said the authority has budgeted an additional $1 million for line replacement in 2024, and will look for other grants after that.
Komandt didn’t respond to a request for an interview.
Pickering’s advice for other local water utilities is to involve the public. PWSA convened a public advisory committee that included community groups, academics, health experts and nonprofits. This effort has made it a lot easier to convince customers to let authority staff into their homes to explain the program and why they will benefit.
“When we started, people at the highest levels of government said, 'PWSA, they're never going to let you in the door. The trust is gone. Good luck,'” he said. “And now, upwards of 90% of the homes that we're able to get a hold of someone they want to let us in and they want to let us do this work because they appreciate the value of it, even if it is disruptive for a day or two.”
