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The clock is ticking, not just for Farmville, but for towns and counties across the country. Back on Aug. 4, 2022, the U.S. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) put out an order. The agency got funding and instruction through the current administration’s infrastructure law to make “rapid progress” on removing lead from America’s drinking water. But to do that, first you need to know how much lead and copper exists in the pipes. And so they set a deadline. By Oct. 16 of this year, all counties, cities and towns have to do a full survey of their respective water systems and submit it to the EPA. 

There’s one catch. The EPA isn’t providing any funding to do this survey. Local governments have to do it on their own. And if the material isn’t turned in by the deadline, it’s going to prove more expensive, as there will be a fine attached. And that’s where the Town of Farmville currently finds itself, with council members having to decide the best way to get the survey funded and finished by the deadline. 

Due to the amount of work required, it’s not possible for town staff to tackle the project, so Farmville has to bring in outside contractors. The problem is that companies are recognizing the lack of options towns and counties have at this point, with some driving up their prices accordingly. Julie Moore, Farmville’s Financial Director, said the first proposal they received came in at $400,000. And it took some time to find an option that was below $200,000. 

What needs to be done?

“We searched high and low to find a consulting firm that could help us with this project,” Moore told the council during their Wednesday, Aug. 7 meeting. “We have about 3,000 meters which means you have about 3,000 connections you have to list on the survey. We got one proposal and it was absolutely ridiculous and so, we kept looking.” 

Basically, Moore said, a company will have to come in, take all the town’s planning documents, all the paper files and go over them, to identify each and every pipe in the system, determining if any have lead or copper. 

“(They’ll have to) bring engineers in and sit down here for weeks at a time and go through those and list every line that they can find on those plans,” Moore explained. “Because on the survey, you have to list the address (and) size of the line, not only to the main connection but to the house too. And then there are all these other questions you have to answer out too. It’s very time consuming. And you have to do that for over 3,000 addresses.” 

But what if a company can’t identify some of the pipes? That’s ok. You just mark it down as “unknown” and then the town goes on the clock a second time. You have until October of 2027 to identify all of the “unknown” pipes. As a result, this is a phased project, Moore explained to the council. She plans to bring a proposal to the Wednesday, Aug. 14 meeting for the company TRC Consulting and Engineering to do the Phase A work at a cost of $112,500. Phase A work includes going through the town’s data, plugging it into the survey, submitting it to the EPA and then answering all questions the EPA may raise. 

Farmville steps after submission

Now as mentioned earlier, submitting the survey is just step one. Step two involves identifying all of the “unknown” pipes in the system. And that’s not cheap. 

“Whatever we don’t know, that’s where they’ll have to start investigating,” Moore said. “Say there’s 100 meters they (can’t identify) and have to dig. That’s going to be like $70,000, just for 100 meters.” 

There are some ways TRC officials have said they can work around it, so that they’re not having to literally dig up every “unknown” pipe. If, for example, they’re having to identify pipes in a neighborhood where all the houses were built at the same time and by the same builder, they can sample. Dig up one line and use it to identify the lead and copper values in all the rest. Another option is to reach out to homeowners and ask for any paperwork or other information they have, such as when the house was built. 

“I don’t see where we’ve got an option,” Farmville council member Thomas Pairet said. “It’s either sink or swim.”  

Farmville Mayor Brian Vincent echoed that position. 

“Yeah, it doesn’t sound like we’ve got much of a choice,” Vincent said. 

The proposal to have TRC do the first phase of the project for $112,500 will be discussed and voted on during the council’s meeting this week. 

Why doesn’t the federal government pay? 

The question has been raised as to why the EPA doesn’t cover the cost, since it’s the agency requiring this to be done. The argument from the federal side is that there’s already been money given to states to handle issues with water systems. EPA officials point to $350 billion in the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, part of the American Rescue Plan. In 2022, the U.S. Treasury Dept. said that money could be used for lead service line and lead faucet and fixture replacements.

Then later in 2022, the Infrastructure Law allocated another $3 billion to states, tribes and territories for lead service line replacement. However, while the money could be used for lead replacement, there were other requirements and timelines included, which limited how the funds were spent.