By Adam Swift
The City Council approved a resolution Monday night that will allow the city to accept a grant for the inventory of the city’s 12,000 water service lines to make sure they comply with the state’s lead and copper rule regulations.
“This grant application (for $365,000) needs a resolution from the city council,” said city finance director Richard Viscay.
The fully reimbursable grant from the MassDEP’s Clean Water Trust Program would be used to create an inventory of all lead pipe service lines in the city.
Ward 1 Councillor Joanne McKenna did ask if the inventory would impact pending road construction on Winthrop Avenue and in other areas of the city.
City Engineer Nick Rystrom said the inventory would involve any potential lead pipes in the city in order to comply with modified requirements from the Environmental Protection Agency.
“This would be for support to comply with new rules that were instituted to inventory the whole city so we can essentially remove any lead we come across,” said Rystrom.
McKenna said she was concerned the work could further delay road improvements.
“Winthrop Avenue is a mess, and so is Webster Street and Summer Street,” said McKenna.
Rystrom said he would talk to the pavement coordinator to see if there are temporary measures that can be taken on Winthrop Avenue if the lead inventory further delays the road reconstruction.
Ward 4 Councillor Paul Argenzio noted that the city has been replacing lead lines for several hours and said he thought there was already a fairly accurate inventory of lead lines in Revere.
“We had a good inventory of lead services from the shutoff valve or the curb stop to the house, and we were able to see a lot of what was lead when we replaced the meters about 10 years ago,” said Rystrom. “What we don’t have information on is what is lead from the shutoff to the mainline, and that is a lot of what the EPA is looking for us to characterize.”
In other business, the council moved a request for a $3 million emergency loan order for the repair of water mains at Oak Island to a public hearing on Feb. 26.
“This requires us to go underneath the railroad tracks, which is causing an emergency in nature,” said Viscay.
The work will include the removal and replacement of a 6-inch cast iron water main and the 8-inch clay sewer line underneath the Bridge Street/Oak Island Road MBTA crossing.
The new co-located water and sewer mains will be 8-inch ductile iron pipe installed within new steel casings.
