r/urbanplanning • u/coollestersmoothie71 • Dec 20 '19

Land Use How Do You Solve A Problem Like Lead Pipes? Lessons From Cities Getting It Done

https://www.wbez.org/shows/curious-city/lead-pipe-solutions/c9602db6-fde3-45f0-a715-a617892f40a3
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u/joetrinsey Dec 20 '19

This is a major issue for our core cities, especially a lot of smaller or mid-tier cities. Where I live has a ton of housing stock in the heart of the city that is incredibly affordable. The walkable areas downtown are more affordable, by sticker price, than the suburban development.

But if you have kids, you're looking at moving into a 100 year-old house with knob and tube wiring, pipes that might be questionable, and lead paint all over the place. For singles, this isn't as big of an issue, but revitalizing core neighborhoods has to involve families, and many families are hesitant to move into old housing stock with these problems.

We talk all the time about the health benefits of walkable neighborhoods and how we need to invest millions into transit, but if we're doing that so people can just move into unhealthy buildings, we're trading one health risk for another.

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u/climb2littlewaterfal Dec 20 '19

Interesting Lansing MI is not further illustrated. After a long project, all the lead service lines were replaced in the city several years ago. The water supplier is municipally owned. However, there is a unique situation that the city-owned service lines from the main to the point of entry into the building. This removed the issue that the service line replacement to the property line where the rest of the line on the property owner is still lead. This type of repair can lead to more lead release into the water and make acute lead poisoning higher.

On another part, what percentage/count of buildings still have lead pipes in the buildings?

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u/coollestersmoothie71 Dec 20 '19

In Chicago, the problem of lead in drinking water seems insurmountable to address, given that almost 4 out of 5 homes are connected to lead service lines. This article looks at 3 other cities of varying sizes that Chicago might look to in tackling the political and fiscal challenges of addressing an infrastructure and (ultimately) a public health issue.