Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-05-02 Transcription Page I Council Present: Alter,Bergus,Dunn,Harmsen, Taylor, Teague, Thomas Staff Present: Fruin,Jones,Kilburg, Goers, Fruehling,Platz, Havel,Knoche, Sovers, Durst,Hightshoe,Kubly Others Present: LeFevre,USG Liasion, Monsivais,Alternate Liaison 1. Lead Private Water Service Line Replacement Presentaton Teague: I will call this meeting to order for the city of Iowa City work session,May 2nd,2023.Welcome to everyone in the room and,uh,virtually that is watching. Our first item is lead private water service line replacement presentation, and I will tum it over to staff,our city manager. Fruin:And I'm going to quickly turn it over to Jonathan Durst,the superintendent of our water division in public works. And he's going to,uh,walk you through the story of,uh,water distribution lines and in particular,uh,lead service lines. Durst: Great. I was going to say,I don't know how to manage the lights in here. All right. Well,today's conversation is gonna be about lead service lines. I'm sure you've all heard the vernacular lead service lines before. Uh,so the takeaway here today is that federal law is changing.It will go into effect in 2024-October of 2024. And,uh,with that law,there'll be a focus on the replacement of lead service lines in,uh,municipal drinking water systems.Um,service lines are like driveways. Driveways connect,uh,our residents to the public roads. Service lines,uh,like driveways are owned by the property owner and connect them to our public water main. Uh,there's a lot of unknowns with service lines because of that ownership,uh,divide. Uh,but since the '90s,we've been controlling the chemistry in our system per the federal guidance passed in 1991,and this first slide here is just,uh,to kinda show you what lead service lines actually look like. So,uh,this line over here,uh,on the far left,you can see inside of it,it has some white,uh,powder on the inner diameter. That's actually by design,we control the chemistry in the water treatment facility in order to be slightly scaling. That means it deposits some calcium carbonate on the inside diameter to prevent the water from interacting with the materials itself. Uh,the one in the middle is likely what the lead service lines look like in Flint,Michigan.Uh,when they changed their source water,they changed their chemistry which made the water corrosive and it began to eat their pipes and release heavy metals into the water system. And then the one on the end is actually a new,uh,lead service line. So it kinda gives you an idea of what these actually look like. And slide 4. So,uh,may go without saying but lead damages the nervous system and is a, uh,public health concern. So different levels of lead can cause different,uh,uh problems.But it's important to also realize that there are sources of lead all over the place. So there's lead in paints, soils,water,outdoor air,consumer products,cosmetics,uh, food,uh,and hobbies,and work You know,people still today work with stained glass windows and use lead to-to do a lot of their hobby trades. So there is lead in the world and it's,you know,in a lot of different products. So the government and public health officials have known about lead for a long time. The,uh,chart on the left here shows and it doesn't show up so well here.But the,uh,amount of lead,uh,in blood levels in the United States and the different legislation pass throughout the years. Uh,what may not be too visible is a couple of very pertinent areas related to water, and that's a lead ban,uh,on plumbing fixtures in 1986,which actually took effect here in Iowa in 1988.And then also the Lead and Copper Rule in 1991,which is when we instituted the controls,uh,for corrosion in our system to make sure that we aren't releasing lead.Um,there's a lot of other,um,legislation in there for bans of lead in paint,bans in lead in gasoline, etc-etc. On the right is sort of a,uh,high level timeline of the events of Flint. So in April of 2014,they flip- switch their source water from This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 2, 2023 Page 2 the Flint River,uh,actually to the Flint River. And then they ignored a lot of information they were getting from their residents. You know,discolored water,bad tasting water concerns with individuals health,uh,until ultimately they switched back to the Detroit River,and by that time,a lot of the damage had already been done to their system and ended in a presidential,uh, declaration of a disaster.Um,from then,uh,we've slowly had legislation coming from the federal level. The first one was known as the WIIN Act,and that's changed how we publicly notify,uh, any of our customers should we have a lead,uh,hit on their system.Um,so we already do that. In 2019 of December,we had the lead and copper rule revisions proposed. Those were firalized in 2020,but then the new administration took,uh,control of the situation. They put an administrative hold,they wanted to review those,um,and so the enacting of that rule has been somewhat postponed,uh,by that.And the Biden administration has also announced that they will be doing a Lead and Copper Rule improvement. So the vernacular here is LCRR for Lead and Copper Rule revisions,which were done during the Trump administration and the LCRI which is currently,uh,being done with the Biden administration.In-between there they had to bi-partisan infrastructure law which did apportion some funds for lead service line replacements in communities. All of that to say is that there's a big change coming,and the first,uh,kind of mark there is October 16th of 2024.We have to,uh provide to our state regulators,uh,complete inventory of service lines in the city of Iowa City,uh,in order to,uh,better understand how many lead service lines we actually have. And then 30 days from that date,we also have to notify all of those customers with either suspected or known lead service lines,uh,that they have a suspected or known lead service line. And that has to go to both the tenants and the property owners. So to kinda get a feel for how,uh,big this change is,here's a portion of the table provided to us,uh, about how it currently looks versus how it's going to look,and this is actually a six page document. Uh,the takeaway from it is- is essentially it's creating,uh,an environment where your lead sample results are going to be higher.Most communities are likely going to exceed the trigger level that is being instituted or the action level that currently exists. And when you exceed either of those marks,there's requirements for lead service line replacements. So,uh,all that's to say is we will likely have to have a,uh,program in place in order to facilitate homeowners replacing their lead service lines. So how have we done so far over the years? So since 1991, we've been sampling.Uh,after the first few,uh, sample sessions of about 60 homes,uh,we qualified for reduced sampling due to the low level of our results. Um,the way this works for lead sampling is you can't just sample the public water main.You actually have to go into people's homes. Uh,you have to have them stagnate their water for a period of time and you have to draw the first liter of water from a faucet or other,um,point where they can actually use the water for a drinking purpose. So arranging these samples is somewhat difficult.You know, people don't want you in their home at 04:00 AM or 5:00 AM whenever they wake up so they can get on with their shower. So a lot of times we have to,uh,train homeowners on how to perform these samples,make sure that they're correct and accurate. The other thing we have to be certain of is,uh,what we call tertiary point-of-use systems aren't in place. So that's has like a water softener or RO (Reverse Osmosis)unit and whatnot. That can drastically change the chemistry of the water that we're putting towards their home. So we don't wanna sample downstream from those because they can make their water more corrosive and eat the pipes in their home as well. So we try to get representative samples of the water that we're producing at a point in a person's home or they're using that water for drinking. So over the years,you can see,uh,this chart here. Uh,each of these triennial sample periods,the samples are kind of stacked above them,and the, uh, sample that has the black X on it is the one that's considered our 90th percent sample. So the 90th percent sample essentially means we're sampling 30 uh points. So,uh,90 percent,in this case,or our 90th,uh,percent sample would be the fourth highest sample. And that's what that X represents is the fourth highest sample.You can see I had to put some out layers on here.You know,there's a 67 parts per billion,there's 140 parts per billion.Every time we get a sample This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 2, 2023 Page 3 that's,uh,quite excessive,we do investigations inside the homes and,uh,we've seen everything. Well,I haven't seen everything but some of the staff who ve been here for 30-some years,have seen everything but,uh,a number of these samples,uh,and the lead that's caused,uh,or in them isn't actually from a lead service line. A lot of times what we see is there has been some sort of home improvement.Maybe some valves got cut and pipes got disturbed. In one case there was a, uh,pipe that was contacting an HVAC duct,which was causing an electrical connection between the two and corrosion in the pipe. So if we slipped a piece of paper behind it and cleaned the aerator out we essentially had no lead in their system. So it is very,um, case-by-case. There is no magic bullet for this.Um,all homes could have a potential to have some sort of errant material in them.We've even seen a,uh,rather well-to-do customer,uh,change out the faucet in their kitchen with a nice big brass faucet.And we got a very high lead sample from that and had to recommend to them,you might want to get rid of this faucet because it seems as though that the materials are not low lead. So,um,they kind of affects everybody across the board,uh,as we go forward. So,uh,on here,the other thing to note is that the dash line shows the existing action level.Exceeding that would,uh,trigger,uh,with the Lead and Copper Rule revision a,uh,3% replacement rate for lead service lines in the system. The one that they're adding with the Lead and Copper Rule revision is the 10 part per billion trigger level. If you exceed that,then you have to negotiate with the state your replacement rate,uh,with all the other changes with the Lead and Copper Rule revision. And you can already see,you know,we're batting about 50%here between the,uh, 10 and 15,uh,parts per billion line,it's more than likely that we will have to have a lead- a lead service line replacement program available to our customers. So,uh,this kind of goes over a few of the things I just said. Um,one of the key takeaways here,is there such a thing as an unknown lead service line or a lead service or unknown.And those lead service unknowns count towards our total as lead service lines,whether it's known or unknown,they consider it to be led. And if your replacement rate is 3%and maybe only one in 10 of the unknowns is actually lead, uh,an unknown does not count as a replacement if it turns out to not be lead. So that can cause you to have to dig,you know, 10 times as many service lines just to find enough service lines to actually replace because some of them may not actually be lead.We don't have a lot to go off of, uh,when it comes to what the materials are underground.And the best way to find out is to dig them up and look. So,uh,a little bit more about service lines and our system and the sources of lead in drinking water. So,uh,what we have over on the right side is a graphic that was developed for us. I don't know how many years ago,but somebody actually hand-drew that and we've had it ever since and it's been very,uh,nice.And other communities have asked us for it over the years. So we've always helped them out by giving it to them.But anyways,uh,on that graphic,all of the blue is the property owner's responsibility. So you can see from the main all the way into the home minus the meter,is considered private infrastructure. Again,just like a driveway. Your driveway brand goes over the sidewalk right up to the home. Again if that driveway gets damaged,the expectation is that the homeowners repairing it. Same thing here with the service lines. So when service lines show up broken,we end up going out to the homeowner and telling them they have a broken service line and it needs to be replaced.We ask them to replace it within 72 hours.Uh, service lines that are broken,uh,provide a point in the system where bacteria or other debris could enter the potable water system. So for us,it's very important that these get fixed,uh,just in case something happens in the system to cause back siphonage. So any sort of pressure upset and whatnot could actually cause water to be sucked into the system and then shut down the main and then enter other people's homes. So we're very,um,you know, on-point when it comes to getting service lines replaced.And it's very difficult for homeowners because a lot of times they don't understand that they own the service line and what it takes to replace a service line. Some homes have service lines that are quite long,or maybe the water mains on the other side of the road and it runs under,you know,the boulevard of Iowa Avenue and it's going to cost a lot of money to repair. So every water main or every service line is This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 2, 2023 Page 4 actually quite case-by-case.A little bit about service lines just to kinda get a feel here. So,uh,the vernacular,so to speak the language,we say box a lot,but it's really not a box,it's more of a tube, but bear with me.Uh, so on the,uh,water main itself we have what we call a tapping saddle. That's a device that actually clamps around the water main and it has a threaded port. And what we do is we screw what's known as a corporation stop into that.And that's actually just a small quarter-turn valve. And what we do is we screw in our tapping machine and we tap through that corp into the water main. And then we let the water main blow the water back out with all the swore from cutting into the main and then we shut the corp off. From there,the contractor will hook on the service line and,uh,run it to what's known as the curb stop,which also has a stop box. Again,this is another quarter-tum valve and the stop box is actually just a tube that allows us to reach down to that valve and tum it on or off. From there,the service line runs into the home and connects to the water meter. So again these,uh,lengths materials,all of that can be very different. Some of the homes here in Iowa City,you know,built in 1900,you know,water system here, started in 1882. Uh,so there can be quite the Frankenstein of materials underneath the ground. It may have broken a few times in the years maybe somebody came in and spliced in two feet of copper. Another person galvanized iron on this side. It-it can be quite,uh,the spaghetti mess down there when it comes to what materials are being used. So that's why it's-it's hard for us to determine what materials are actually being used because a lead service line is essentially any service line containing lead. If it's got two feet of lead in it,it's a lead service line. So,um, it's- it's important to-to-to be as accurate as we can. Um,with that and back to the,uh,topic that uh lead service lines are not the only source of lead. The EPA has this,uh,graphic here that kind of points out that galvanized pipe exposed to lead can actually complex with lead and harbor it. So any disruption of a galvanized pipe that was exposed to lead can cause a lead release. That's also in the Lead and Copper Rule revision.If any,galvanized iron line and the service line was exposed to lead at any time in its history it's also to be considered a lead service line. Uh,so galvanized iron pipes can also exist inside the home. There's also copper pipes with lead solder like we discussed earlier,uh,the lead band,he and I we didn't go into effect until 1988. So homes built between about 1950 and 1988 have a very high chance of having,uh,lead solder in their system.In fact,we just had,uh,in the last month,a customer whose home was built in 1987, tapped on a main that was installed in 1984. They replaced one valve in their home and they ended up having a 31 parts per billion,uh,lead sample,which is double,you know,about doubled to 15 parts per billion action level. We went back to investigate. We pulled apart their kitchen faucet sure enough we found chunks of metal stuck on the aerator screen.We dump that out.We took another sample.We're still waiting for those results,but likely is not that was what was causing the high lead. So in no case did they have a lead service line. They just had stuff come off the inside of the pipes in their home,get into their aerator. So,uh,it's- it's important to know that because even if we can get all the lead service lines out there,still,a lot of public education that needs to occur with,uh,homeowners about how to maintain your plumbing things to look for,how to flush your system out and clean your faucets. So our public water distribution system has about 280 miles of water main,uh,a group of seven individuals very dedicated to the repair of our water mains,do that all year round. I'm sure you've all seen the water main break notices and whatnot and they do a fantastic job. So I can't say enough good things about the dedication they have for that work.But conversely,there's about 500 miles roughly 500 miles of privately owned service lines in Iowa City. Some facilities,like our large industrial facilities, have giant fire service systems that wrap around the whole building,have multiple hydrants,etc. So there-there's quite a lot of private infrastructure connected to our public infrastructure in fact, almost double. Annually we have about 20-24 service line breaks.And again,most homeowners aren't aware of their service line. They don't know what-where it is,why they're being told they have to fix something,etcetera etcetera. So it can be very much a hardship for them when their service line breaks. And we try as much as we can to help them through the process of contacting This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 2, 2023 Page 5 contractors,making sure they're getting a fair price,making sure that the work that's being performed is appropriate.But right now,you know, service line breaks and it's lead. We don't have any teeth to tell them it has to be replaced. So in fact,just today I was informed of another property who had a lead service line repaired rather than replaced. And one of the things that the Lead and Copper Rule revision is definitely no bones about.Is that a disturbed lead line is the worst kind of lead line.Because when it's not disturbed, a lot of times that nice layer on the inside helps protect that line from anything.But when it does become disturbed,that's when you get the release of particles that can get caught in the aerator and whatnot. So a damaged lead service line is basically almost a guarantee that somebody is going to be exposed to very high levels of lead. So when a homeowner ops to not replace their lead service line and rather just get a repair.We try to coach them on how to clean their aerators and flush their system and minimize as much as possible any exposure to lead in their drinking water.But ultimately it's their infrastructure,their choice,their pocketbook,they're assumed risk And that's the way it works. So right now we are working on that lead service line inventory. On the left is kind of a snapshot.What you see there, the ones that we've already designated as lead service unknown or the dark reds which we know have lead service lines. This will have to be publicly available on the city's website come October 16th.We will probably put it on there such that somebody could just zoom in and click on our parcel and know what tier level it's in and what that means.Right now,we started at about 10,000 lead service unknowns and as we've collected,meta-metadata on each of the parcels,build year, TAP card records,etcetera etcetera.We whittle that down to about 3,000 lead service unknowns and about 100 confirmed lead service unknowns or lead service lines.We have some more data to get through.We're hoping to get that lead service unknown down to about 2,500.But an important thing to kind of note about this map and what we've seen in the field is that pretty much homes built before 1950 have a very much-it's a relatively higher likelihood of having a lead service line than homes built after 1950,after 1950s-1988,we see a lot more of the copper lead solder type plumbing and service lines. So with that,you can see the area on the right shows 1950s water main.And those dashed lines are actually 1950s water main that we've abandoned and replaced.But there's kind of an easy box here to think about in terms of where lead service lines are most likely.And that box is bordered by Sunset,Whiting,First Avenue,and Highway Six. That box kind of comprises the 1950s footprint of Iowa City and coincides with where our 1950th vintage water main is. So back to the federal bipartisan infrastructure law and did have money that could be allocated to states to be distributed through the state revolving fund for service line replacements. Forty nine percent of that supposed to be forgivable to disadvantaged community.And disadvantaged communities are tied to census track information where you have to score above a certain level in order to be considered a disadvantaged community. There's a more granular widget that they're working on,but as of now,that's not available to us,but Iowa City currently scores 12 on the existing,which is under the 15 needed to be considered a disadvantaged community. So it makes it unlikely that these loans through the state revolving fund would be eligible for forgiveness to the City of Iowa City. So problem statement,as we've discussed,things are changing. As of October of 2024,the copper rule revisions or improvements are going to be taking effect. It's going to have us address privately owned service lines and have those replaced at significant cost regardless of ownership. Some communities such as like Madison,Wisconsin have already started down the path of trying to get lead service lines out of the system going so far as to shut people off if they're unwilling to have their service lines replaced in order to force that to occur because of the amount of cost that it would cause the system to have to do other treatment methods in order to keep one or two service lines from corroding. Presenting today a few options,you know,the first option here is apply for these SRF loans tried to conduct large infrastructure projects and packing them in historical areas and streets. The SRF funding would not cover pavement repairs or internal plumbing work, and each property owner in that area would have to agree to this work.Again,we can't just go on to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 2, 2023 Page 6 people's property and tear it up without temporary construction easements are other sorts of permissions from them. Second one here is what I like to call the three-legged stool. Because of three-legged stool means all legs in order to function. So that's to promote what's a National League of Cities Service Line Insurance Program that's administered through Home Serve. Update our municipal code to ban the repair of lead service lines and require full service line replacements and create a cost-share program for the verification of an or replacement of lead service lines. And then the last one is to essentially generate enough fimding through rate increases in order to do a intensive and extensive multiyear CIP process. So essentially paying for option one ourselves instead of trying to get SRF loans.It's also important to know that SRF loans have a lot of bureaucratic necessity as associated with them and incurrying departmental reviews and other sorts of needs. So our recommended option is Option Number 2,the three- legged stool. And so with this is the National League of Cities HomeSery Service Line Insurance Program and public education component. I'll get into each one of these in a little bit more detail here shortly.Uh,the code change to prevent lead service line repairs and make sure that they're being replaced and developing a cost-share program to provide the resources to homeowners who want to be proactive and either verify and or replace their lead service lines without waiting for them to break or otherwise become manifest in their lives. So,uh,the first part of that is the National League of Cities service line program. So this is,uh,essentially an insurance. The way it works is that we,as the City,would pass a resolution to,uh,enter a marketing agreement with them. So it doesn't cost the City anything to have this happen except our letterhead. The way that works is we,uh,help craft these messages that will be mailed to our customers to say this service line insurance program is available. Here's the cost. You may want to consult your current homeowners insurance to see if it's available through them at a competitive rate. Um, and this is why it's important.You have a sanitary sewer service. You have a water sewer service-or water, uh, service. These can become damaged. These are owned by you,and if they do become damaged and need to be repaired,the cost can be significant. So at a,uh,premium of about,I believe the last time I checked with them,it's $748 a month,you could potentially have,uh,your service lines covered,uh,in case of any sort of damage and need of repair. So, again,it's a marketing approach. There's no cost to the city,other than helping out with what those mailers look like and making sure they're appropriate and the message is what we want our customers to hear. We can back out at any time. We can also opt into getting a royalty payment from them for the use of our letterhead.Uh,that money could be,uh,I believe up to about$10,000 which could be fimneled into the cost-share program to help people replace or verify if they have lead service line. Uh,here's kinda some details about what the,uh,sewer or water service line coverage provides. So each one would be its own,uh,premium,you know,7-8 bucks. If a qualifying event occurs,they would get$8,500 without a deductible to affect the repair to their service line. We see,uh, a range for service line replacements.Now,the-most of the time we see at around $8,000410,000,uh, for service line replacement.But the-the total range we've seen is between about 5,000-30,000. Uh,the 30,000 is the very high-end and that involves a lot of pavement repair. Anyways,uh,one of the biggest benefits to this is the 24/7/365 hotline. So when we inform customers that they have a service line that needs to be repaired,it's very much kind of feeling as though they've been caught flat-footed and we give them a list of contractors they can call,but then they're stuck,you know,trying to call three or four different people if they want to be,you know,diligent to get quotes and then figuring out when they can get out on site,you know,etc, etc,etc. Well,this program,that's these contractors provides a single number to call and the prices are already negotiated. So it really helps out the homeowners and it would really help us out as well to have that hotline available,uh,because it just takes so much stress away from the homeowners and also from us in order to find the correct service provider to get the work done that needs to be done in a timely manner.Uh,I would say by and large,that is the hardest part for homeowners is just feeling comfortable getting the quote and getting the service This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 2, 2023 Page 7 done,uh,at the cost,uh,that a lot of these can-can cost at. I mean,you just don't want to throw money away and hope that the person is doing it correctly. They also offer internal plumbing insurance.Uh, so this is another separate one. The premiums for this are higher. They're about $10 a month and the coverage is $3,000 per incident. So these are the three programs that we could,uh, advertise to our customers,along with public education component about what service lines are,the health effects of lead,whether or not they have lead service lines.We can package all of that together and provide it to our customers. This program is,uh,endorsed by the National League of Cities,as well as the Iowa League of Cities in many communities and Iowa are already,uh,participants within it. So some of the surrounding communities here,West Branch, uh,West Liberty,Tipton use it.Des Moines Water Works,which provides,you know,water to the entire municipal area there,uh,participates in this program. So it's been around.It's been useful. There's good reviews from the other communities. Uh,and it would very much help our customers as we approach this lead and copper rule revision. Code changes are a bit straightforward. Add some definitions about what a lead service line is.Make sure we define what a full lead service line replacement is. Tie that to the state and federal code, so we don't have to change it often when things change at that level.We just make sure it stays there. Uh,the next part there essentially says if a-a lead service line becomes damaged,it can't be repaired. It has to be replaced.Uh,and kinda go through all the little bits on that. And then the last part there talks about when we do public improvements that we would replace the portion of the service line in the right-of-way to the stop box and inform the customer if we find anything,whether galvanize exposed to lead or lead downstream from this stop box and give them the opportunity to replace the rest of the line into the home.We're already doing that.We've done it with Olive Court and University Heights. We have provisions in the Court Street,uh,reconstruction.We have provisions in the Fairfield reconstruction that's about to kick off here soon. So this is something we're already doing,but it's just putting it into code that this is what we will do when we're doing public improvements on the water main,is we will replace the section of,uh,service line in the right-of-way. And then the last bit here is kind of the conceptual understanding of what this cost- share program would look like. The actual details are,you know,yet to be determined,but,uh, there would be two components,a verification dig,and then the actual replacement. So,again,we wouldn't know for sure on lead service unknowns if it's actually a lead service line until we dig it up. So a verification dig would be an opportunity to dig the,uh, service line at the stop box and two feet to either side, so we can make sure that it wasn't just a new stop box spliced in with a couple of feet of copper. We want to see it either side. So we would have one of our customer service staff observe that verification dig, figure out what the materials are on the other side of that. And then if it turns out to be lead,then this customer would also qualify for the,uh, reimbursement on the lead service line replacement side of things. So a verification dig,we would say 50%up to 3,000. For the service line replacement,we would say,uh, 50%up to 5,000. We would move away from,you know,having to replace any fences or plantings and things like that. That would be on the homeowner,uh,to-to repair that if they were disturbed during the,uh, service line replacement. We would keep ourselves to,uh,paying for the service line costs and, you know,pavement or others,uh,built surface restoration processes.But again,that's the conceptual understanding of it at this point,is to again,provide resources. So the reason this is the three-legged stool,banning the repair of service lines could put hardship on some folks who don't have the money to replace their service lines. So having that service line insurance program there would give them the opportunity at a low premium cost to then have access to those resources should they have to replace that service line.We also have the resources available to our homeowners through this cost-share program if they want to be proactive.We're going to be notifying these homeowners annually that they have either a potential lead service line or a known lead service line and that's going to get people,you know,worried and they're going to want to take some action. So this gives them an opportunity with our help to take that action at a This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 2, 2023 Page 8 reduced cost to find out what truly is underground and give them the peace of mind going forward. So those three components give our customers the resources they need to make good decisions with regards to their private service line. So next steps,uh,you know,we would look to make an ordinance change to ban lead. We would have an effective date on that to hopefully coincide with the,uh,availability of the National League of Cities Service Line Insurance Program and then adopt that resolution to begin that process and that public education to people. Here's what's coming. You know, lead service lines are not going to be allowed to be repaired anymore.We'll have these opportunities available for you through a cost-share program and in this insurance program as we proceed. In October of 2024,we'll have the results.But before that event,if you have concerns,contact the water division.We already do,uh, free lead sampling for our homeowners. If they have a concern,we'll work with them. We'll train them on how to do that. We'll drop a bottle off in the morning or in the evening and then pick it up the next day from them and run it out to the state hygienics lab and get the results. If it's high,we give them results right away. We work with them to flush their system and again,investigate to find out why that may have been high. So all of that would wrap together and move us forward. Questions?Thirty six minutes.It's a lot to go through. Harmsen: Thank you.A couple of quick questions.Just to make sure the-the insurance program listed on the slide,if they are damaged,that includes not necessarily damaged,but need a repair or replacement. Durst:Right. Harmsen:Did I miss that?Just-just to make sure that it was a qualifying event would be if the direction of right,there's some sort of damage to the service line in need of repair. Okay.I think I had another question on here you may have answered.Um,and then concerned residents,they can request testing as well. I know you have to the-you recruit years but in the meantime,like,as we start this education campaign,um,if a resident says,hey,you know,Ibe got an older house,can you come to my house? Some- something that the city does. Durst: Yes. Harmsen:Does it come at a large fee? Small fee?No fee. Durst:No fee.My sister was concerned, she contacted me and we worked that out for her to. Harmsen:And there anything. So when it's owner-occupied,that's-that's fairly clear cut. Durst: Yeah. Harmsen:What about for rental properties? So,um,detection of some of these lines in some of older buildings that also our rental properties here in the city. How do we interact with that because we could potentially have not five people,um, exposed.It could be 200,you know,something or 20 or whatever. Durst: Yeah. So one thing about lead service lines is they're not a large diameter service lines. So,uh, large,you know,multi-story,multi residential properties typically have service lines that are larger than two inches and we already know that those won't be lead.But some of the rental properties,as you say,that have multiple tenants within them,we always try to interact with the property owner as well as the tenants to inform them of what's going on. And the Lead and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 2, 2023 Page 9 Copper Rule revision mandates that we have to speak not only to the property owner but to the tenants. Ultimately,what work does or doesn't get done is up to the property owner. Harmsen:And then somewhat like the older homes that had been converted into,you know,multiple residential,those-to me,that would be the ones most likely to have lead service lines. Durst: Correct. Yes. There are a lot of homes that had been converted that are-have a higher likelihood of having a lead service line. Harmsen:And last question,I promise,um,just to be 100 percent clear. Are there any lead in the-you said water mains a few times,I don't think you meant that those were- are there any- any lead in any of the water mains or the city-owned part of this system. Durst:Right. So as far as explicit lead in contact with water,no.But to point out,our system is and does still operate water main that was installed in 1882,which I-I looked that up. So that was about the same time the Statue of Liberty was being constructed and before the Eiffel Tower was constructed. In fact,the same year that the fust home in the United States got a domestic electricity to it. So with that said,the way they installed cast iron water mains back in the day was what's known as a leaded bell. So the bell and spigot joints and water main kind of go together like a hip joint. And so after they push the spigot into the bell,they would melt a billet of lead into that joint. That joint doesn't contact the water,but it could contact the water over time. That being said,we know we don't have any lead or detectable lead in our public water mains. So there are lead materials,but there is no lead in our drinking water. Hamrsen: Thankyou. Teague: Just one follow-up to the question that you mentioned about the$8,500. So let's say that someone-the cost to replace the the pipes is 5,000,but the yard is another 2,000 What that yard part be covered through this. Durst: Through the insurance program. That would be a question I would have to ask them,I don't know off the top my head. Teague:But that won't be the same question for the 10-dollar additional for. If someone just wanted to cover the-the water pipes in their home,um,is it only for,you know, stopping-replacing the-the burst pipe or is it also the dry wall that got wet and. Durst:Right. Teague: Insulation,so-. Durst: Yeah,those are things that we would have to clarify with the insurance provider and make sure that those details are included in any of that public education and outreach when we provide it to them. Bergus: You'd mentioned that we would want to-if we're going to go forward with the three-legged stool that the kind of the educational component would come before,the code change would come before,but to make it effective when that rule goes into place in October 2024,do you have a sense of the time-frame or what you would recommend as far as when to get that underway since we're I don't know, 18 months out. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 2, 2023 Page 10 Durst:My personal opinion would be immediately. Bergus: Okay. Durst:But in terms of when we can or when that's feasible,uh,I'm not sure,but the sooner the better. The sooner we have this in place,the sooner we've begun this process of educating our homeowners so that come October 16th,2024,when we mass mail all of these notifications to people,they already know what resources are available. They feel like they can have control of this and it's not something we've just blindsided them with. Bergus: Thank you Alter: Following up on the question about the education piece,it's like there's so many layers to this and- and I feel you've done a great job of-of saying that they'll be,um,information about, sort of, what may be upcoming and why i.e,you actually own this stuff,right? Durst:Right. Alter: Will there also be sort of the-the foundational core,which is the-the laws we are changing and therefore,like,the-the LCRR,right?I mean,that's the impetus for why this is all becoming law, right?Am I understanding that correctly? [OVERLAPPING] So yeah. I just wanted to-to,so it's a piece that I think could be really helpful for whomever is going to be affected is-or impacted is to say,I mean,this isn't like we just decided you need to have new pipes. It's like this is a new law that's gone into place,so and that may already be part of the messaging but,um,I think for some folks,that would be an important piece. Otherwise they would feel that it's just a saying.I mean,it's a good thing,but they might be oh I can't afford it,you know,what have you. So just say this is something that is-this is a federal law that's going into effect,could be-. Durst: I agree with you. Yeah,it would be important to make sure that the-the story here is understood that this isn't a knee-jerk or some sort of whimsical thing,this has been in the work since essentially President Obama declared a disaster for Flint,Michigan. This is the outcome from that and it's finally coming into the fore. Alter: I did have one other question. I'm sorry. Durst:No problem. Alter: Has there been any conversation?I'm just thinking about actually getting the message out and like once I'm sure that there's going to be multiple iterations of kind of trying to get the education piece out.But in terms of letting people know like,and here's the program,and here's,you know, the resources. Um,have you perhaps been in conversation with Johnson County that that could go in with when property taxes are being sent out?Because that might be a way that people could actually get it right in hand go. Durst: Correct,yeah. We could-we probably make use of our utility bill inserts. We fmd those to be very effective ways to communicate to our water customers. Alter: Thanks. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 2, 2023 Page 11 Bergus: I know you had the list of all the other cities in Iowa,but specifically,those that are in Johnson County,are there- are there others?I'm just wondering if this is something that we've talked with our neighbors about as far as them implementing,and I'm kind of looking at Geoff. Fruin:No,I haven't. I don't know if they've considered it or not,but it's something we can certainly do Is- is coordinate with them. Bergus: There's value to that,but. Durst: Yeah,there may be,you know,each community is different,and how they source their water,treat their water,and when they began as a community and where that kind of nucleus area of 1950s prior homes are located. So,you know, some of our-this law is-hits everything. So even small homeowners' associations that qualify as water systems have to do a lead service inventory. So a lot of the engineers we interact with,you know,they're also their water operator for their small system,and that'll tell me,well,I got my lead service inventory,complete I'm like yeah 25 homes,great job,man. But-so yeah.Different areas are going to have a different amount of impact from this-this coming law. So we can defmitely have those conversations with the surrounding areas to see if they would also like to perform a program like this.When I was talking to the DNR about what we intended to propose,they were very interested to see how this works for us because like I said,those SRF loans are tied to kind of like that rubric which you have to qualify as a 15 and a lot of communities can do that. Plus,you know,the revenues aren't there to go ahead and just say we're gonna do a$15,000,000 project next year to-to tear up all these old brick streets and start going into homes built in the 1900s. So having this in place,you know,empowering our homeowners to make these decisions may actually end up being a model for other communities in Iowa to use going forward in order to help get their lead service replacements up to the level they need to. And-and doing this doesn't preclude us in the fixture as we get more information from looking at some of those other options,you know,doing a CIP or trying to get some of the state revolving fixed. It's actually on a five-year,uh,uh,spent. So every year they'll get more money for this particular thing that we can apply for.But right now I think the best thing for us is to,you know,get these programs in place,get our homeowners feeling in charge and aware of these situations. Bergus: So just another question,maybe for Geoff understanding that their recommendation would be to, you know, start as soon as possible.But what-what might be feasible as far as the timeframe if people would be,you know,on the lookout for this? Fruin:Well,I guess I'd want to have some conversations with staff to get too specific,but-but we can do in for public insu-information about lead in general lead testing services available.We've done some of that,particularly in the aftermath of Flint. And anytime there's a new story about lead, you know,we'll get-we'll get more calls and e-mails. So I think we can do some of that basic stuff now.We still have some homework to do on the insurance program,on designing the cost- share program,those types of things before we get very specific about that.But advertising that lead service-le-lead testing is available for your home.Here's who may be at risk based on year of construction or things like that. Tha-tha-that's stuff that we can do right away,um, and probably that we've done in the past and can be easily repackaged. Bergus: Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 2, 2023 Page 12 Teague: You know,if someone,um,can get a higher level of funding back so there's one fee so far,is what I'm understanding,for the insurance cost where they can get up to$8,500?Let's say someone knows that they hit,you know,$60,000 worth of destruction- Durst: I know one that probably does. Teague: - Or-or$30,000,right?That's the upper-the upper end. Durst: Yeah. Teague: Could they get a higher,um,are there tiers that they can get for a higher level of funds when- when something happens? Durst:Right,uh, so I'm not aware of any higher levels of coverage for the National League of Cities program.But that I think is why one of the key points in the,uh,public education is to say,you know,look at your,uh, system, call us,maybe we can provide you some more information,and it may be best for you to talk to your current homeowners' insurance provider to see what they have available for you if you know there's a larger liability than the$8,500 that this program provides. Teague: Sure. Thank you. All right. Any other questions? Thank you so much. Fruin: So,Mayor,I think our intent in presenting to you today was just awareness,first of all,but also to give you a signal,the path that we're going down with the three-legged stool approach. If you at any time you want to have a follow-up discussion on any of those things,let us know,but that's where we're moving as this deadline is drawing closer and closer. 2. Clarification of Agenda Items Teague: Thank you. All right.We'll move on to item number two, clarification of agenda items. Bergus: Just to give you a heads-up,Mayor,I will be recusing myself from item,I don't have it in front of me,I think it's 8A,the Oaknoll Area rezoning. 3. Information Packet Discussion (April 20,April 28) Teague: All right. All right.Any other items?All right. We're going to move on to Information Packets April 20th. Fruin:Mayor maybe I can put it on your radar and the council's radar coming up in-in the past the council has,um,considered reduced meeting schedules in the summer,um,really that's your-your can I'm not-I'm not trying to push you in that direction but it is helpful for staff to have a few months of planning particularly when we,um, are thinking about capital projects schedules and public hearings schedules so maybe for the next meeting or-or sometime here this spring you guys can discuss that. Bergus: I think-do we have a somewhat reduced summer schedule already? Fruehling: July has one meeting. Fruin:Already-we already covered that my apologies. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 2, 2023 Page 13 Teague: Yeah. Fruin: Okay,thank you. Teague: Yeah,we kinda went through the entire year. Bergus: That's what I thought,okay. Harmsen:Yeah-yeah. Taylor: Yeah,a big schedule. Bergus: We liked how it went last year. Fruin:Wonderful,thank you. Sorry about that. Teague:But-but I think it's still-it's good to mention if there's anything that's changed for anyone you know If we need to move that date around I think we're open to doing that. So check your calendars,look at the dates that we have said and,um,if there's any conflicts for any councilor let us know. Teague:Moving onto April 28th,Information Packet. Thomas: Um,IP3 is-Andrew contacted me and asked if I-he's not able to come to the work session and he'll-he'll be with us for the formal session but he asked if I would pass on the issue of the chicken ordinance,good old chicken ordinance,um,I guess he's been talking to councilors and I think the city attorney with Eric about this and,um, asked if I would request that it'd be put on a- put up you know on the work session list as a topic of discussion. Teague: So [OVERLAPPING]. Taylor: That will be agreeable. Harmsen:Yeah. Teague: Yeah. All right,we'll put on the list. Anything else from April 28th Information Packet? 4. University of Iowa Student Government(USG)Updates Teague: All right,we're going to welcome up USG,The University of Iowa Student Government with their updates. Alter: Anew person. Teague: We have a new person so maybe they'll be an update there. LeFevre: Oh yeah,there will be. Hey council. So first off we will get out of the- finals week is next week so students will be ending the semester after that week.Um,most students will be leaving Wednesday and Thursday,um,but anyone who stays in town will be staying. I will be staying. So This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 2, 2023 Page 14 you'll see me over the summer a little bit in order to get my stipend and in order to just understand that-the council itself.Um,this is also the fust week of the new administration under Mitch Winterlin and Carly O'Brien,they will be coming to a couple of city council meetings too, so I'm sure you'll see some of the administration here like you did last week and,um,we have a new deputy city liaison which is amazing.Matthew Monsivais and I'll have him,um, introduce himself here. Teague: Welcome. Monsivais:Hello,good afternoon councilors. It's very lovely to meet all of you for the first time.My name is Matthew Monsivais,I'm a fust year at the University of Iowa studying Political Science with a minor in rhetoric and persuasion on the pre-law track with a certificate in political risk analysis.My hometown is Ankeny,Iowa- from the Des Moines area if you guys are familiar with that and,um,I'm also a tour guide for the university. So that's also a really fin part of what I do. I'm looking forward to meeting all of you individually and working with you. Teague: All right. Monsivais: Thankyou. Teague: Well,welcome welcome. LeFevre: Of course,and then that's it. So thank you guys so much and yeah see you in two weeks. 5. Council Updates on Assigned Boards,Comissions,and Committees Teague: Well happy fmals week. All right,Item 5 is council updates on the sign boards,commissions, and committees. Taylor:Well,I guess we could do that at this point,um,Councilor Harmsen and myself are in the Rules Committee and we met recently,we don't have to meet very often but we did because one of our charges is bylaws from committees and I think it's 6i is what we saw you are presented with the results of-of the planning and zoning re-revised bylaws which they-they pretty much went by just to be consistent,particularly with,uh,the,um, speakers and to coincide with-with our rules for speaker guidelines and those kinds of things and just to clarify a few- few other little points in their bylaws because they hadn't lifted with them for awhile. Harmsen:Yeah,just kept few minor language changes to make sure that our language was correct. Looking at some of the electronic meetings which of course we've all come to appreciate over the last couple of years and so just kind of does-does those updates and so we looked at those and- and recommend those changes for the full council. Taylor: One thing that was discussed on that line was a-our persons that are attending via Zoom even if their council committee members, commission members are they allowed to vote and I -and I believe it was decided that-that they-they would not be counted as far as the quorum to-to be voting.Do you remember that Eric on what,what we decided on?But I remember there was a discussion on that as far as Zoom meetings and whether you're actually physically in attendance or on Zoom. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 2, 2023 Page 15 Goers:Right.I'm-I'm sorry I guess I'm a little foggy on the discussion.I remember there was some discussion about whether they would be part of the quorum. Taylor:Right. Goers: And-but certainly they could vote. Taylor: Okay. Goers: Yeah and maybe we're on the same page. Taylor: A determined quorum versus in-person versus right? Goers: Yeah. Taylor: Yeah,okay. Teague: So I'm assuming that the majority would have to be-there would have to be a majority present- Taylor: Physically present. Teague: -in order to be quorum. Harmsen:Yeah,I-I can just read the Section 5 with the unchanged part. "A majority of the members of the commission shall constitute a quorum",um,and then struck out the phrase at any meeting. The new part reads as follows, "Unless an electronic meeting is allowed pursuant to Iowa Code Section 21.8,the quorum must be physically present. Where a quorum is present,electronic participation by those members not physically present may be coordinated on a case-by-case basis upon requests." So there needs to be a physically present quorum,uh,if somebody were to say you know I'm-I'm traveling or something like that and the rest of the-rest of the PNZ decides that that's okay for them to participate then,then they have that door open. Teague: It's awesome. Bergus: I have an updated just from this aftemoon,The Better Together 2030,uh,board of directors convened for the first time. So there was the initial board who voted in the expanded board which,um,you all had nominated me to represent us on. So,uh,it was about an hour-and-a-half meeting and,um,if I fall asleep it's because we were at Royceann Porter's Soul Food restaurant and she fed us lunch. Teague: Okay great. Bergus: So we had like entire-entire spread and got to eat that during the meeting.Um,but we just talked about kind of the Better Together 2030 vision,how that came to be,how it aligns with,um,you know on the goals sort of identified through the processes that-that resulted in that and,um,of course we know that it aligns very well with our strategic plan.We're keeping an eye on that. So it just was a great-um,great first meeting and I think we'll have substantive updates I'm sure quickly. We did learn a little bit more about the 3D printed house project that-um,that we are supporting,um,and just yeah. It's very exciting. Things are-things are happening. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 2, 2023 Page 16 Harmsen:Now I have to ask do they have an update on when the start of that would be or a deadline? Bergus: The printing itself I think would be this fall.Yeah. The appending apparently,they're going to Muscatine soon,yet this month and apparently bringing in some materials from Australia assuming-bless you, assuming that that occurs on time then they will. I think we're next after Muscatine so.It changes all the time,I understand. Teague: Any other updates?Hearing none we will adjourn this meeting and be back at 6:00 PM for our formal meeting. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 2, 2023