Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County sets fee for lead line replacements

The Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County will charge property owners in eight northern communities $3,200 to voluntarily replace lead water lines in their homes and businesses.

Authority board members approved a plan last week they said caps charges and subsidizes water line replacements as part of what is expected to be a three-year, $11 million project to remove lead-line pipes.

Officials this year launched the replacement project, funded through state loans and grants, to replace up to 1,000 lead water lines in Vandergrift, North Vandergrift, East Vandergrift, West Vandergrift, Hyde Park, Apollo, North Apollo, Leechburg and West Leechburg.

The agency will pay to replace lead lines from its main lines to curbs outside of homes and businesses. MAWC said property owners will be required to pay for the replacement of lead lines that run from the curb and into private homes.

“This is a voluntary program, and we are establishing a flat fee that is a reduction of the actual cost,” authority Business Manager Brian Hohman said.

He said property owners have the option to decline to have the work completed on their property.

Homeowners will be notified as the authority begins replacements of the lead lines in their communities.

Those who agree to have the work completed in their homes can pay the full upfront fee or have the cost of the line replacement billed monthly, with financing over 10 years at 1% interest. That’s an amount that mirrors rates associated with the state loans the authority secured for the project.

Hohman said owners who finance the replacement will see their water bills increase by about $28 a month.

The authority’s board of directors approved a $5.5 million contract with W.A. Petrakis Inc. of Monroeville to complete the line replacements on private property.

Hohman said the flat fee charged to homeowners reflects about 40% of the project’s costs.

“We are hopeful people will participate,” Hohman said.

Pennsylvania banned the use of lead pipes in 1991. Under a change of federal guidelines enacted during the Biden administration, water providers are required by 2037 to replace all lead lines.

Water contaminated by lead pipes ia known to cause damage to key organs, stunt childhood development and cause other severe harm.

No amount of lead is considered safe in drinking water.

Annual testing of MAWC’s water system found no discernible lead in the authority’s water supply, officials said.

An inventory of MAWC’s service area, which includes more than 123,000 customers in Westmoreland, Allegheny, Armstrong, Fayette and Indiana counties, estimated about 3% of the system’s water lines include lead pipes.

Replacements of lead lines in system’s northern communities is the the first of what is expected to be an expanded effort in future years.