Biden’s Infrastructure Czar Visits City, Touts Lead Lateral Funding

President Joe Biden‘s infrastructure czar Mitch Landrieu got an up-close look Wednesday afternoon at Milwaukee’s longterm efforts to replace the approximately 70,000 remaining lead service lines that connect homes to the water system.

Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans, joined Mayor Cavalier Johnson, Congresswoman Gwen Moore, Representative Sylvia Ortiz-Velez and a number of labor leaders to observe the work of Five Star Energy Services at S. 12th St. and W. Cleveland Ave.

As part of replacing a six-inch water main for the Milwaukee Water Works (MWW). Five Star is replacing the lead service lines that provide water to each of the homes on the 2700 block of S. 12th St.

“The idea is pretty simple from the president. He thinks America’s best days are ahead. He thinks we can do great things when we come together, across race, across geography, across party. And then when we find common ground, we can build an America better than she ever has been,” said Landrieu, senior advisor and infrastructure coordinator.

It’s at least the second time this year a key administration official has visited Milwaukee to tout the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and American Rescue Plan Act. Vice President Kamala Harris visited a job training center in January, touting the benefits of job training programs related to the work.

City officials have said they view the visits as a sign that Milwaukee’s programs are working and worth celebrating. But Mayor Johnson, in remarks praising the Biden administration for its support, said the city would still need more help to address the lead crisis.

Landrieu acknowledged that more work would also need to be done through the Department of Housing and Urban Development to remediate lead paint in homes.

“Lead is lead. However it gets there, whether it’s chipped paint or it’s through the water it is a real challenge,” said Landrieu. He said the infrastructure law would accelerate addressing the problem.

The $1.2 trillion package, passed in November, includes $15 billion for lead service line replacement. A total of $48 million for lead service replacement is expected to come to Wisconsin in 2022, but local officials have warned that money would take time to impact Milwaukee’s rate of service line replacement. The project observed Wednesday was funded through the MWW.

A MWW spokesperson said 524 service lines have been replaced through July 1, a figure that has the department on track to meet its 2022 goal of 1,100 service lines replaced. A 2018 city report estimated the cost to replace all of them at $750 million. The average per-lateral (service line) full replacement cost as of Dec. 31, 2021 was $10,234, according to a MWW report.

The cost now to do the work is likely higher due to inflation.

Landrieu said the revelation Wednesday morning that inflation had reached 9.1% wasn’t what was happening on the ground. “The number today is not a good number,” said Landrieu, but he said falling gas prices indicate the backward-looking figure would trend down. Despite  “In the long-term, we think it will work itself out.”

But until inflation does work itself out, officials spending infrastructure money will need to contend with more expensive materials, and concurrently supply chain shortages.

Interim MWW Superintendent Patrick Pauly told Urban Milwaukee that the city received a shipment of corporation valves necessary to connect water lines to mains. Earlier this month, Department of Public Works officials warned the Common Council that they had to develop rationing strategies to deal with shortages of key materials. Pauly said MWW is now planning a year ahead when previously it was a non-issue to get materials.

Even before supply chain issues set in, the utility has seen its progress slow amid the pandemic. It replaced 622 laterals in 2017, 933 in 2018, 1,000 in 2019, 888 in 2020 and 983 in 2021. Most (63%) have been as a result of emergency replacements where a leak or other failure occurred, but an increasing amount of work is now targeted at planned replacements where the lowestcost and highest total can be achieved.

Former MWW superintendent and new Biden administration official Karen Dettmer was also in attendance at the event Wednesday. In 2021, she estimated that without scaling up the workforce, area contracting capacity was a maximum of 2,000 service lines replaced per year.