It’s been about a year since water supply board Providence Water rolled out a loan program for customers looking to replace their lead pipes, and they say it’s been off to a good start.
The three-year, no interest loans cover the entire cost of replacing private lead service lines, which are the pipes that run from the curb to a property’s water meter.
“It’s an important issue to prevent any child or elderly from getting any lead into their system,” Peter Pallozzi, deputy general manager for Providence Water, said.
Pallozzi said so far, 44 people, mostly in Cranston and Providence, have had their service lines replaced, totaling about $167,000 in loans.
He said though that’s just a portion of those eligible, if too many people signed up at once, it would have been harder to serve them.
“You don’t want to be able to give people the possibility of changing their service (lines) and then they’re ready to make the payments or pay it off in full, however they prefer, and then we can’t get to them for two years,” Pallozzi said.
There are still 84 people waiting for new private lead service lines. Work on their services is slated to begin soon, according to Providence Water.
Right now, Providence Water does not plan on discontinuing the loan program. They have $250,000 built into their yearly rates to fund the loans and have also received an additional $1 million from the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank for the program.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, children are more vulnerable to the effects of lead poisining than adults. Low lead levels in children can cause issues such as behavior and learning problems and impaired hearing.
Providence Water estimates there are approximately 28,000 private lead service lines still installed, but they don’t know for sure since they don’t keep records of that.
Pallozzi warns replacing private lead service lines may not eliminate all sources of lead in a home, since internal plumbing, plumbing fixtures and paint may also contain lead.