The Governor's Lead Pipe Record

Introduction

Governor Tony Evers never misses an opportunity to talk about how dangerous lead pipes are, especially for children. However, if Evers and his fellow liberals put our money where their mouth is, Wisconsin would have replaced all its lead pipe lines years ago.

During his State of the State Address this year, Evers talked at length about the need to replace lead pipes, stating that “There is no safe level of lead exposure for kids.” This was nothing new. He talked about replacing lead pipes last year and the year before that. In fact, replacing lead pipes was one of the very first goals that Evers set when he became governor in 2019. He even declared his first year in office to be the “Year of Safe Drinking Water.” During that State of the State Address, Evers explained, “we have an estimated 176,000 lead service lines across our state. Removing lead service lines could cost over $2 billion.”

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Wisconsin’s 176,000 lead pipe lines affect 111 distinct communities, especially Wisconsin’s largest city–Milwaukee–which has some 70,000 lead service lines.

What Evers Could Have Done

Despite the sizable $2 billion price tag, fortunately for Evers, Wisconsin received billions in federal funds from the CARES Act and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)–$1.99 billion and $2.53 billion, respectively. Ultimately, Evers wound-up presiding over the allocation of more than $9 billion in COVID-19 funding–and suddenly replacing all of Wisconsin’s LSLs became an achievable goal.

DOA has a chart detailing the various projects and efforts that received pandemic response funding and the efforts made by the Evers administration to finally replace hazardous LSLs. Here’s what the Evers administration chose to prioritize once it finally received the funds necessary to replace Wisconsin’s LSLs:

• Broadband Access Expansion: $147.7 million
• Equitable Recovery Grants: $86.6 million
• Diverse Business Assistance Grants: $70.5 million
• Tourism Capital Grants: $21.9 million
• Movie Theater Grant Programs: $20 million
• Cultural Organizational Grants: $15 million
• Wisconsin TRAVEL Grants: $11.8 million
• Tourism Marketing: $7.5 million
• Minor League Sports Team Grants: $2.7 million

Not a single lead pipe replacement project received funding. Not only that, despite the Evers administration benefitting from a $9 billion windfall, only one project related to safe drinking water received funding––a whopping $9 million for private well replacement.

What Evers Actually Did

Now, Evers and his administration have allocated funds toward clean drinking water initiatives and lead pipe removal, but curiously waited until the end of a health crisis to address the negative health effects of LSLs.

All told, Evers has allocated $739 million toward clean drinking water initiatives since 2022. However, not all of this went toward replacing lead pipes. Based on the Governor’s own press release, the most he potentially spent on LSL replacement is $225 million––less than a third of all clean water funding.

For example, the Evers administration allocated $64 million in federal funding approved by the EPA for lead service line replacement in October 2022. Then, the following year, Evers and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced $402 million in funding to improve drinking water, including the replacement of lead pipes–through the Safe Drinking Water Loan Program (SDWLP). But only $74 million of that was specifically earmarked for lead pipe replacement, and $30 million of that went solely to Milwaukee. Again, on November 4, 2024, Evers and the DNR announced more than $273 million to ensure safe drinking water in 86 Wisconsin municipalities, including the replacement of lead service lines. But again, only $87 million of that went directly toward replacing LSLs.

Yet despite these measures, the number of lead pipes in the state has not been significantly reduced, and is proving to be far more costly than the original $2 billion. By the end of 2024, around 150,000 utility-owned LSLs still remained. Furthermore, the governor only requested $40 million in GPR-supported bonding for lead pipe replacement during his first two budgets, and $200 million during his third budget–far less than the $2 billion he initially stated would be required. In each instance, the governor’s provision was deleted or not included by the legislature (See 2019-21 Budget, 2021-23 Budget & 2023-25 Budget), but even if it was, the $225 million Evers has spent, and the $280 million he would have spent, is still a far cry from addressing the $2 billion problem Evers has identified.

The additional $9 billion in spending during Covid would have been sufficient to replace all the lead pipes in Wisconsin four-and-a-half times over, yet Evers is likely to demand more funding for this problem. Meanwhile, much like the rest of the state, Milwaukee has received hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years, and just a small fraction has been allocated toward lead service line replacement.

Milwaukee's Lead Pipe Problem

In 2017, Milwaukee began the process of systematically removing all of its remaining lead pipes. From Mayor Tom Barrett’s budget address on September 26, 2016 “the work to replace lead laterals in 70,000 homes will cost, in today’s dollars, $770 million.” A 2023 report showed that 65,000 lead pipes remained in Milwaukee, even after some 8,000 LSLs had been replaced.

In 2021, Milwaukee received $394.2 million in funding through the Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (LFRF) as part of the American Rescue Plan. These funds could be used for four main purposes: replace lost public sector revenue, respond to the far-reaching public health and negative impacts of the pandemic, provide premium pay for essential workers, and invest in water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure. This final category would surely include lead pipe replacement.

But here is how the money was actually spent according to the City of Milwaukee American Rescue Plan Dashboard:

$250.6 million for government services, $76.1 million for housing and neighborhoods, $52.1 million for public health and safety, and $15.4 million for economic and workforce development. Remarkably, the only lead-related project was for a Lead Abatement Workforce Development Program which received only $3 million in funding.

Between 2017 and 2023, Milwaukee borrowed more than $13.7 million to address lead pipe replacement, while also assessing more than $8.5 million in its budget over the same time period to replace LSLs. Interestingly, the cost to replace Milwaukee’s 8,000 LSLs during this same timeframe is approximately $2,778 per line. This is a fourth of what Governor Evers estimated in 2019 at approximately $11,363 per line ($2 billion for 176,000 LSLs).

Last fall, a new EPA rule mandated a 10-year timeline

for local governments to replace all remaining lead pipes. At its current pace of replacing roughly 8,000 every six years, Milwaukee will be hard pressed to meet this deadline.

Conclusion

After six years in office, Evers has consistently argued that the removal of lead pipes is a top health priority, but has failed to offer a clear and strategic plan to achieve this objective.

Furthermore, the experience in Milwaukee has shown that LSL replacement can be done at a cost significantly less than what the Governor estimated. Yet, six years and $9 billion later, Evers has missed every opportunity to achieve his goal––a goal he could have met four and half times over.

Replacing lead pipes is obviously not that important of an issue to Evers and Milwaukee’s liberal leadership, except, of course, whenever they get in front of a microphone with their hand out.