ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — In April, Englewood city leaders will iron out funding for a plan to replace all lead service lines in the water system with copper. A 2023 inventory estimate report showed there are up to 3,000 lead service lines in the city.
"Many of our homes in Englewood were built prior to 1950. So, we have a number of those homes that still have a lead service line that delivers water from the main water system to their house," said Pieter Van Ry, director of utilities for the City of Englewood.
Homeowners can use an interactive map to find out if they have a lead service line by clicking here.
The data is used by combining information about water mains, age of homes, water inspection information and even physical inspections.
"We are planning to start the actual removals later this year, probably mid to late summer," Van Ry said.
Englewood Utilities was approved for a $10 million grant from the Federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, a $10 million low interest loan, and an additional $20 million low interest loan from the State of Colorado Revolving Fund.
"$40 million should cover the entire cost of our program," Van Ry said. "We anticipate that there may be a small increase to our rates to complement that federal funding and those grants to help enable all of that funding to be utilized to eliminate this problem in the next three to five years."
The exact impact to utility rates and the finalization of the funding plan for the project will be decided this month.
To determine which areas get their lead pipes removed first, the city said they will work with a contractor on which areas could address as many as possible in the most cost-effective way. They added that the northern part of the service area is very concentrated with lead pipes, which could have more of a potential impact.
Another change being considered while this project is ongoing is the installation of advanced water meters while the construction of the lines are taking place, which would move the remaining 1,183 flat rate water customers to a metered utility rate.
"When advanced metering goes in, what we expect is the customer will have a whole lot more visibility into their water usage," Van Ry said. "We expected a flat rate customer, their bill would actually probably go down because of the fact that they'll have a better insight into the water that they're using."
