Consultants tell Greenville City Council an aggressive lead‑line replacement schedule would save residents and the city millions

At a Greenville City Council meeting, consultants from Arcadus outlined a lead service line replacement plan and urged the city to act quickly to capture federal and state assistance.

"Lead is very toxic. There is actually no safe level of lead," said Sheri Loose of Arcadus, explaining why the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s updated Lead and Copper Rule requires cities to inventory lines and submit replacement plans. Loose told council members the city submitted an inventory in October 2024 and must have a replacement plan in place by Nov. 1, 2027.

Arcadus senior engineer Jason Abbott said Greenville has "approximately over 2,000 lead service lines" and described a two‑phase program that prioritizes neighborhoods near planned public‑works projects to avoid redoing recent street work. Abbott said project areas were divided into eight groups and clustered into Phase 1 (1A/1B) and Phase 2, with Phase 2 covering roughly 1,000 laterals.

Consultants proposed two paces: a moderate schedule stretching to the 2037 federal deadline and an aggressive schedule that front‑loads work to take advantage of current funding opportunities. Arcadus recommended pursuing an aggressive timeline so Greenville can apply for Ohio programs that offer 0% loans with up to 50% principal forgiveness tied to federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) funding administered through state programs including OWDA. Loose said the 2026 nomination round under those Ohio programs showed roughly $190 million available statewide.

Arcadus presented cost estimates the council can use to nominate projects: a conservative per‑property estimate of about $13,200 for a full service‑line replacement that includes public and private sides plus inspection and administration; Phase 1A’s estimate was about $1.2 million for roughly 64 service lines; and a moderate plan produced a total project estimate "just under $31 million." Under the aggressive funding scenario, consultants estimated the citywide payback could be substantially lower (Arcadus cited roughly $15.56 million in payback obligations under that scenario) and annual loan payments once all loans are active would be under $390,000.

The consultants emphasized participation challenges if the city expects property owners to pay their share during a compressed nomination window. "If you raised your rates one and a half to two percent a year over the next couple of years, you would get to where you would have all of the revenue needed to be able to pay back those loans," Loose said when discussing rough rate‑impact modeling. They recommended the council consider paying for the customer side as well as the utility side to maximize homeowner participation and reduce administrative burden.

Arcadus also recommended the city prepare outreach materials—customer notification letters, social posts and handouts—and consider policy mechanisms such as point‑of‑sale replacement requirements or penalties up to disconnection for property owners who refuse replacement by the final deadline. They noted that nominations to Ohio EPA/OWDA this week would not lock the city into taking the loan but would put Greenville on funding lists and preserve access to grant opportunities such as H2Ohio.

Next steps outlined by Arcadus included submitting nomination forms immediately, preparing a full loan application and bid documents by summer for a possible loan award in September, and beginning construction on Phase 1 as soon as the funding and bidding process allows. City staff agreed to circulate the consultants’ slides and reported the nomination forms would be sent this week.

Council members asked for copies of the packet and for time to review the scenarios; Arcadus said it would provide the PowerPoint and outreach materials. The consultants left the council with a recommendation: pursue the aggressive schedule and consider the city covering both sides of service‑line replacements to secure the most favorable financing and the largest overall savings.