Dec. 23—A long-term project to replace lead and galvanized water service lines at Joplin homes will begin next year by Missouri American Water Co.

Company officials said there will be no cost to customers for the line replacements. The lines are those that connect from the water meter to the foundation of a house or building. It does not include the household plumbing.

Matt Barnhart, director of operations for Missouri American Water Co. in Joplin, and Susan Harris, engineering manager for the lead line project, spoke at a Joplin City Council meeting on Monday to begin getting the word out about the program. They said they want residents to know about and understand the program so they will be willing to cooperate.

The replacement work will be a multiyear effort to comply with proposed rule revisions of the Environmental Protection Agency. Those revisions will require the replacements by local water companies to be completed by 2030.

The EPA has drafted rule revisions in order to reduce lead exposure through water lines coming into houses. The rule changes are in response to the Flint, Michigan, tainted water crisis that has resulted in the government paying to replace water lines there, said Christie Barnhart, senior manager of external communications for the Joplin water company.

The rule revisions will be out in June, she said, and apply to all water systems nationwide.

The Flint crisis developed a decade ago after the city of Flint changed its source for the municipal water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River to cut costs. As it turned out, the river water was contaminated from industrial waste dumping, municipal wastewater, and agricultural runoff. That caused water distribution pipes to corrode and leach lead and other contaminants into the drinking water, affecting health of children, Christie Barnhart said.

However, there is no problem with Joplin water as there was in Flint, which may not have happened had it not been for the river contamination, she added.

Knowing that the rule changes were coming, Missouri American began replacing its water mains and other system lines statewide that were lead or galvanized starting in 2017. That work is underway in Joplin.

Harris said the first task in Joplin will be to put together an inventory of the lines that will have to be replaced. That has to be submitted to the EPA by October 2024, Harris said.

The water company does not know how many lead and galvanized service lines there are Joplin.

“The first phase of what we’re going to be doing is getting that inventory,” Harris said. “We have data on the company side of the locations, but of course we don’t have that information for customer side because we don’t own that.”

The water company will have contractors going through to gather the inventory information by going into customer houses and looking at where the service line enters the house to identify the type of pipe. She said that will take only a few minutes.

“We will be scheduling appointments for them to come in and take a look at those materials,” Harris said. In areas where the company has the information, they will start doing the line replacements.

“The replacements will be done at no direct cost to the customer,” Harris said. A plan has been developed to divide the city into zones with about 500 customers in each zone. “That way we can go in and target that area (zone) and then move on to the next area in a strategic way,” she said.

The EPA is proposing what the agency calls Lead and Copper Rule Improvements in an effort to significantly reduce exposure to lead through drinking water. Missouri American says the largest source of lead in drinking water is from a customer’s plumbing and from the service line that runs to the house or building to pipe the water.

A key element of the the rule revision, according to information EPA has posted on its website, is to replace lead service lines to reduce lead exposure. The revision proposes to require water systems to replace lead service lines under the control of the water system within 10 years, with limited exceptions.

The EPA rule revision specifies that companies should start in low-income neighborhoods first. That will be one of the areas most likely to contain lead and galvanized pipes. Additionally, those are most commonly found in structures built before 1930, according to the EPA information.

Mayor Pro Tem Keenan Cortez asked Harris how much time a resident could expect the replacement work to take.

Harris said replacement would usually be two to three days. They will do boring for the line replacement, rather than digging a full trench, in a way that has minimal impact to lawns.

Customers will not be out of water service during that entire time, but they will need to be on site when the work is being done because the contractor will need to come back inside the house to flush faucets. The water service will not be interrupted that full time. Water will be shut off only two to three hours as the new pipe is connected.

Customers also will be notified in advance when the contractor will be at a location to do the work.

Barnhart said replacements are already being done as lead and galvanized lines are found at sites.

Councilman Phil Stinnett asked what material will be used for the replacements. Matt Barnhart said the company had been using copper but it was found to be degrading so for the last five years a special plastic has been used that is performing well.

What it will mean to many Joplin residents, Barnhart said, is that “if their line doesn’t go bad prior to” the work, “they are going to end up with a new water line at no expense to them and one that is probably going to last for a long, long time. I can’t imagine anyone not being enthused and very happy about that” because it would cost several thousand dollars to hire a plumber to do.