Jefferson lands grant to replace lead pipes

JEFFERSON — In a major effort to clear the way for cleaner tapwater, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is granting Jefferson Utilities $300,000 to help remove old lead service lines that carry drinking water into homes.

It is part of $14.5 million that the DNR?is making available to municipalities to assist their customers statewide.

“We are extremely happy that DNR has funded our grant application and that now more tools are available to us to remove lead from our system,” said Jefferson Utilities manager Jill Weiss. “This is a one-time opportunity to help our customers with the cost of the removal of their lead services, as the DNR anticipates two funding cycles and those that are funded in the first cycle may not be funded again as they want to assist as many municipalities as possible....

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Ken Notes: This is also frustrating, while I am glad more communities are addressing this issue I can not help but feel sorry for the communities that addressed this years ago on their own dime. I had to make cuts to other services in Neenah to deal with this and I know this is true for Madison as well... So are these communities being punished for their environmental responsibility??