LSL Policy Lowdown: August 21–30, 2026
🔎Legislative Scanner
Check out EPIC's legislative scanner to keep track of all the state LSL bills worth keeping an eye on.
Local Updates
🏆Wins
Greater Cincinnati Water Works celebrates the removal of 10,000 LSLs, a major milestone for the program which began in 2018. Nearly 30,000 LSLs remain, but GCWW is confident it can meet the federal 2037 deadline.
EPIC’s take: 👏 It’s great to see utilities committed to full replacement. One particularly positive aspect of the program is that replacements come at no direct cost to homeowners, with costs spread across the ratepayer base. Removing this financial barrier increased homeowner participation from 42% to 90%—more than double!!
💡Spotlight
Potsdam, NY to excavation after ElectroScan falls short on inventories. The village had contracted with ElectroScan to identify service line materials using a non-excavation method (likely Swordfish). After multiple complaints about missed appointments and poor communication left many lines unidentified, the village canceled the contract.
EPIC’s take: 🚩New tech can help accelerate LSL replacement, but it comes with risks. Potsdam adds to the growing number of concerns about ElectroScan’s approach to LSL inventories. Earlier this year, we flagged concerns about the company’s limited transparency about the technology’s accuracy and “non-invasive” claims, given that the method involves inserting a probe that could disturb internal pipe scale. The point isn’t to bash ElectroScan—new technologies can be valuable tools, but utilities should validate that they work as intended and are a good fit for their particular systems before relying on them at scale.
🚧Hurdles
Wausau, WI continues to wrestle with how to pay for replacement. Wausau is exploring funding and financing options to replace its remaining 4,000 lead lines, most of which are on private property. With federal funding running out and previous efforts to use tax increment financing no longer an option, the city is considering 3 different options:
Option 1: Absorb full cost through borrowing.
Option 2: Front the money and set up a repayment program, similar to a special assessment, allowing homeowners to repay the cost over time.
Option 3: Require cost-sharing, ranging from ~$2,000 to more than $5,000 per home depending on local conditions.
The city is also considering adopting a local replacement mandate to increase its chances of receiving more SRF loan forgiveness.
EPIC’s take: 🚩 Tough choices indeed. Cities across the country are probably having similar conversations, and each one of these approaches comes with its own set of pros and cons. While eliminating direct cost to homeowners increases participation rates, we recognize it isn’t always feasible. Communities may not have the capacity to take on additional debt and future federal funding remains uncertain. We’ve seen cities like Ridgewood, NJ, and Columbus, OH, spread costs over time using special tax assessments and 99-year liens. The truth is communities will need to get creative about how to pay for LSL replacement—our funding and financing paper outlines some strategies.
Want to learn more?
Visit EPIC's LSL Policy Lowdown page, LSL Replacement Initiative page, and our Lead Innovation Hub.
