By Josh Margolis
HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – The city of Havre is working on obtaining funding in order to replace around 185 lead service lines that connect water meters to water mains.
Public Works Director Dave Peterson says the estimated cost is $4.4 million. They have already been provided minimum allocation grant funding of $950,000 and are seeking up to $2 million in a competitive ARPA grant application. The rest would be funded via a match from the city.
“Once we go in and replace the lead line services, we would also replace the water mains within those areas…the good thing about this project would be most of our lead services are the older portions of town. So that would mean that some of the older distribution system in town, that would also get replaced when these lead services are replaced.”
This comes as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is requiring an inventory of all lead service lines to be submitted to them by October 2024. An exact date for replacements to be completed has not been set.
If the competitive grant application is approved, Peterson says they hope to begin construction on the project by 2023 and complete it by the end of 2024.
