Elyria hopes to eliminate lead service lines by 2027

Elyria officials say they are hopeful that the city could be totally free of lead water service lines by 2027. On Monday, Samuel Jacob, the superintendent of the Elyria Water Pumping Department, went before a joint Elyria City Council committee to ask the city to pursue $5 million in state funding to carry out the fifth phase of the city's lead service line removal plan. Jacob said that if the city receives the full $5 million it is requesting, he believed money could see the complete elimination of lead service lines by 2027. A joint committee of Council's Finance and Utilities committees unanimously approved the city administration to apply with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency for $5 million through either a Water Supply Revolving Loan Account or as a grant. In October 2024, the federal Environmental Protection Agency issued an order requiring all municipalities to have a plan in place by 2027 to replace all their lead service lines by 2037. "We think phase five will get rid of all the lead service lines and all the unknowns," Jacob said Monday. "By 2027, the city has to have a plan in place to replace all the lead service lines and figure out all the unknowns within 10 years. We're one of the few cities that jumped on this early and we're way ahead of the game. My goal is to have all this done by 2027." Municipalities must remove all municipal service lines that are either confirmed to be lead or are "unknown." An unknown line is any water service line built before 1986, when the Safe Drinking Water Act banned lead service lines, that cannot be confirmed as lead-free. Mayor Kevin Brubaker said the city has been working on its lead pipe removal project since the administration of former Mayor Holly Brinda, thanks, he said, to the foresight of Jacob, Water Distribution Manager Dave Rothgery and the rest of the city's water team. "It's just a credit to the work of our entire water team, from public utilities to water distribution to water pumping," Brubaker said. "They got on top of this, they understood it, they took it and ran with it and it's to their credit that we are where we are. They saw the future, they acted quickly and we got ahead of the game." Brubaker said that "getting ahead of the game" gave the city access to crucial state funding sources that will only become more competitive in coming years. The joint committee on Monday also approved the hiring of CT Consultants for the fifth phase, and the advertising of bids to carry out the line replacement work. CT Consultants would be paid $142,300, and the company helped the city pursue state funding in the prior four phases of its lead service line project. All three of the lead service line measures passed Monday must receive final approval from City Council as a whole before they can be enacted. Jacob told Council on Monday that the city is ready to carry out the fourth phase of the project, which is fully funded and contracted out. Once the fourth phase is complete, the city would have "way over half" of its original lead pipes replaced, Jacob said. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.