APPLETON, WI — All public and private leaded water pipes in the city of Appleton are now officially gone. The city common council announced back in 2020, that it was determined to have all leaded pipes within Appleton removed by 2024. As of November 15th, it is now complete.
Appleton’s Public Works Director, Laura Jungwirth says that the city was able to fund and replace the leaded pipes thanks to State funds and Federal ARPA funds.
“We have funded all of the private side lead lateral replacements and some of our galvanized replacements through ARPA dollars, through state water drinking loan principle forgiveness. So we’ve been trying to capture whatever we can to assist property owners financially,” said Jungwirth.
Jungwirth tells WTMJ news that what makes this announcement so exciting, is that the city has already met the EPA’s mandate from this fall requiring all U.S. communities to have their lead water pipes replaced within the next ten years.
“Just even considering the new mandate that came out this fall, that we need to have lead replaced within the next ten years, and we’re looking at that in and of itself being ten years ahead of the game,” said Jungwirth.
With Appleton’s water pipes now lead-free, the city is now focusing on it’s next big infrastructure project to replace all galvanized pipes in the next five years.
According to the EPA, lead can actually attach itself to galvanized pipes, which can still lead to lead leeching into the water supply.
Jungwirth hopes that once the galvanized pipes are totally replaced, Appleton will have lead-free water for all of it’s citizens.
