This transcript features **Morgan Dawley** (City Engineer) as the primary speaker, providing a presentation on the lead service line inventory. Other speakers include city residents and a brief interjection from city staff regarding scheduling. [00:00] **Morgan Dawley:** I’ll try to talk loud. What we want to do is record this and record a video, and then we want to post it on the city's website in case people were not able to make it to the meeting here tonight. So, we got a thumbs up on the audio? All right, I'll try to do the best I can here. My name is Morgan Dawley, I am North St. Paul City Engineer, and thank you very much for taking some time out of your evenings for this informational meeting. Really, we're hoping that this is going to be some education for you all. I'm happy to answer some questions; if you could hold them to the very end, I'm just going to run through a very short presentation with just some broad general information for all of you about this effort, what the city is trying to accomplish, and what we're hoping to get from all residents on this collaborative effort of data collection. I'll talk a little bit about what we hope to achieve at the end of this and then we'll move into a Q&A. The reason for that is that we are trying to record this just so we've got documentation for the folks that were not able to come tonight so we can take written comments, provide feedback, answer questions, or get back to you with information that we might not have ready tonight. With that, I will move into the presentation. Again, I'm the City Engineer. With me here tonight is Noel and Shaby, both from the city's consulting engineering firm, WSB. They're helping with some of the public engagement. We have Ron Ritchie, who's the Director of Public Works, and we have Randy Miller, who's the Assistant Director of Public Works. They are the folks that operate and maintain your drinking water system in North St. Paul. From a City Engineer standpoint, I'm a little bit more on the planning and the replacement and design of our infrastructure system—not just drinking water, but also wastewater, sewer, and storm water. I've been with the city since 2009. When you have dealt with our "summer of Minnesota" construction season, orange cones, and trying to get around all the projects through the years, I'm probably the guy that you can blame for that. As we get into 2024, with mandates passed by the federal government through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cascading down to the Minnesota Department of Health, the goal here is to identify and reduce the number of lead water pipes from a public health standpoint. Who here knows that lead pipes are not ideal for drinking water? Okay, we've all been raised on that. In 1974, the federal government banned the use of lead pipes in drinking water. Newer homes or reconstructed streets use newer pipe materials. We have a table out there with examples. For service pipes recently, we've been using copper or, since 2016, plastic pipe. For water mains, we use PVC or ductile iron. We even have records of the city putting in copper service pipe as far back as the 1950s. The transition away from lead has been going on for some time. However, the record-keeping regarding what was put under the roads since World War II isn't that great. That is where we're at today—trying to improve our understanding of what types of pipes are used in your homes. Since I’ve been City Engineer, we have replaced water services to hundreds of homes. In my experience, we’ve only come across two homes that had lead service pipes. It’s not very common. Public Works might have come across another two or three during maintenance. But those are just the areas we've dug up. This is where we need your help. We’re asking all water customers, including Maplewood residents on our system, to help identify and log the material of the pipe in your home. We have a mobile-friendly app you can access via QR codes. We’re asking to collect this information by June 7th. It’s not a hard requirement, but we want to incentivize folks. Step number one is to find your water service line. Most people know where their water meter is—it’s usually replaced every 15 years. From the meter down into the ground or wall, that’s the pipe we need to identify. You can use a scratch test or a magnet. If you scratch a copper pipe, it will look shiny like a brand-new penny. If it’s silver or gray and a magnet sticks to it, it’s galvanized steel. If it’s silver/gray but the magnet *doesn’t* stick, it could be lead. Plastic is usually blue or black. Lead pipes often have "bulbous" ends, looking like they were squished with Play-Doh because lead is malleable. If you find a galvanized or lead line, we will use that data to gather grant dollars from the federal and state governments to replace them with minimal financial impact to residents. The city would likely hire a contractor to do the work. We have to submit this inventory to the Department of Health every year for the next 10 years. If you need assistance, you can schedule a free appointment and our Public Works team will come out and do the evaluation for you. We want to start the first replacement projects as early as next year once we understand where the funding is. I’ll open it up to questions now. [15:20] **Unidentified Resident 1:** Will cement work be done when the basement floor is cut open? [15:25] **Morgan Dawley:** Excellent question. Yes. Typically, we use a method called directional drilling to avoid digging up your whole yard. They will cut about a one-foot by one-foot hole in your basement floor near the water meter. Once the plumber reconnects the new pipe, there would be concrete work to restore that floor. [16:10] **Unidentified Resident 2:** And if we have a valve that has a rubber gasket right now, would we change it to a ball valve? [16:15] **Morgan Dawley:** I’m 99% sure that the shut-off valve below the meter would get replaced at the same time as part of the code, likely with a ball valve which is less prone to leaking. [16:40] **Unidentified Resident 3:** Two gentlemen came from the city already and they scratched it and it was rusty and they took a picture and submitted it. [16:45] **Morgan Dawley:** Well, thank you so much for your assistance. That highlights that using our Public Works folks makes it relatively easy. [17:00] **Unidentified Resident 4:** I asked earlier—I don’t know a whole lot about my townhome. They said they had appointments Monday and Friday. What are the time frames? My schedule varies. [17:15] **Randy Miller (Public Works Supervisor):** Look online at the open slots. We have 20-minute slots. It’ll only take us a few minutes, but you have to book at least 24 hours in advance. [17:25] **Unidentified Resident 4:** I’m thinking since I live in a townhome, I can connect with my neighbors so somebody can come and see them all at the same time. [17:30] **Morgan Dawley:** Oh sure, if you’re both home at the same time, that works. [17:40] **Unidentified Resident 5:** I have a much older house. If there is a replacement, does it go to the curb or the street? And what about the driveway? [17:55] **Morgan Dawley:** It depends on whether the lead is on the home side or the street side of the shut-off. If the shut-off valve is inoperable, we’d replace that too. Regarding the driveway, we wouldn't leave the restoration to you. If we have to cut concrete or asphalt, we would patch it with clean lines as part of the project. [18:30] **Unidentified Resident 5:** If we have galvanized running from the curb stop to the house, does that also mean it's running from the curb to the street? [18:35] **Morgan Dawley:** Not necessarily. Your home was built in 1887, so it pre-existed city utilities. The pipe from the main to the curb might have been put in by one contractor, and the pipe from the curb to the house by another plumber years later. It could be anything, which is why we need to identify both halves. [20:10] **Unidentified Resident 6:** I apologize if you already said this, but are there two phases? One for the curb to the home and one for the street? And do lead amounts increase during replacement? [20:25] **Morgan Dawley:** We are trying to identify both halves at once. If we find lead, we’d want to replace both sides at the same time. Regarding lead levels, whenever you do plumbing, we recommend flushing the lines. Opening all your taps will flush the home with fresh water from the street. [21:40] **Unidentified Resident 7:** You mentioned Oakdale... [21:45] **Morgan Dawley:** Correct, Oakdale would be responsible for their own effort. Just like we are contacting Maplewood residents who are on our water system, if there is a North St. Paul resident on Oakdale water, they would follow Oakdale's process. Every city is going through this. St. Paul Regional Water has already started their replacement effort because they are a much larger system. Our goal is to move toward replacement efforts hopefully next year. We’re going to stick around and answer individual questions. Thank you for your help; it’s going to help us all in the interest of public health. If you have neighbors in condos or twin homes, please encourage them to reach out. Thank you so much.