Lead Pipe Crews are a Welcome Sight

[There are different funding sources for lead pipe removal; IIJA is one of them. This sign was from Frogtown earlier this summer.]

A bunch of “No Parking” signs showed up in my neighborhood yesterday, on the next block to the west. It turns out they were there to make space for the crew that’s been systematically working through Hamline-Midway and Frogtown to replace the ubiquitous lead pipes that have been lurking underneath people’s yards for decades. It’s impressive to see how quickly the crews remove and replace the pipes. They dig up the sidewalk and then use giant steel frames to excavate the pipe between the house and the street, before replacing the concrete sidewalk and moving on. The process takes about two weeks and they are good at it by now.

Lead is a big problem, and it’s everywhere. When we bought our house in 2019, one of the first things we did -- we were told to do by a friend -- is look up our address and check our house for lead pipes. Thankfully we were one of the few homes on our block NOT to have one.

[The St. Paul lead pipe map.] 

This is the “service pipe” that runs from the water main to the house, typically about 20’ that, for many many houses in St. Paul’s working-class neighborhoods, remains lead to this day. That’s a problem for everyone, but especially for any household with kids. I think about all the kids I know on our block — I can name nine — and wonder how many of them drink water traced with lead every day.

When I had former St. Paul City Council Member Chris Tolbert in my classroom this spring, asking him about his career at the City of St. Paul, he said he was proud of his work funding lead pipe replacement over the years. He and others fought to get funding for the city, from state and Federal  programs. Then the IIJA / Biden infrastructure bill came along and threw a lot more Federal money at the problem, as you can see from that sign. That the work is just happening now, under the diametrically opposed Trump cabal, is ironic. 

It’s wild that the United States has taken so long to clean up lead. (See also: Flint, MI.)  Given the clarity around what lead does to children, this is such a clear need. The last twenty years have presented many golden opportunities for the government to devote money to this kind of infrastructure investment, it’s damning that it’s only happening now.

Better late than never. The crew fixing the pipes in my neighborhood is a rare encouraging sight in Frogtown!

[A pile of lead pipes in Frogtown, recently removed from people's front yards and homes.]