- Oshkosh's Department of Public Works is combing through 22,000 pipelines to find any that may have lead. The city's Utilities GM says about 2,100 lead pipes have been found so far.
- The city is encouraging residents to sign up for free inspections to see if their pipelines might have lead, but is having a hard time setting up appointments
- Local plumbers say replacing lead pipelines could cost homeowners $4,000-$5,000
(The following is a transcript from the broadcast script)
Oshkosh's Public Works Department is undertaking a massive effort to find out how many of the city's residential water pipes still contain lead.
I'm your Oshkosh neighborhood reporter…Seth Humeniuk.
This one here is made of copper…but city Utilities General Manager Steve Gohde…says crews have already found a lot of lead pipes
"On the private side we're just over 2,100 private side lead service laterals so far."
Godhe says that number is out of 22,000 service laterals in Oshkosh. He says the city has been offering free inspections to people…and building a database of lead pipelines in order to meet EPA requirements, but says many homeowners have been hesitant to get the checks done.
"We've been struggling to get into people's homes, we've been doing a door-to-door campaign in construction areas, we've been sending mailers, it's really been a struggle."
Although he says the ultimate goal is to replace all lead pipes…which one local plumber told me could cost homeowners four to five thousand dollars per line...He reassures homeowners that won't necessarily need to happen right away.
"The inspection is not going to trigger an automatic replacement. If we find lead in your house, or galvanized in your house, it does get recorded, but it's not going to trigger an immediate replacement."
"That's terrifying, it makes you think of you know, the stories you hear about that sort of thing happening in other towns, and years later it's still not fixed. So you'd hope that isn't happening here."
Keisha Vergenz says that hearing about lead in the pipes has made her want to get hers looked at. And encourages other people…to do the same.
"I think it'd be much better to know than not to know and, you know, if you could prevent harm from being done, it's better to prevent something than fix something that's already happening. So I think you should definitely look into it if you can."
Gohde encourages Oshkosh residents to schedule a 15-minute pipe inspection on the city's webpage. We'll have a link to it on NBC 26.com
In Oshkosh…Seth Humeniuk…NBC 26.
