Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Similar to many older cities in the Northeast and Midwest, lead service lines are a prevalent issue in the city of Buffalo. The city’s water utility is facing the issue of replacing its lead service line, which could result in potential lead exposure to the city’s public. Lead service line is a water service line made of lead that connects the water main to the building. If been disturbed, lead paint coated inside the lead pipe could be a hazard in drinking water. Lead has wide-ranging effects on the health of young children. Even at very low levels, lead exposure affects the ability of children’s brains. Thus, could result in significant costs to taxpayers in terms of billions of dollars in public spending on special education, juvenile justice, and other social services.

The lead level in Buffalo’s drinking water has consistently below the federal action level. However, alerted by the ongoing lead contamination crises in Flint, Michigan since 2016, the Water Authority set its goal to remove all its lead service lines in 20 years. For each replacement cost may range from $5,000‐$7,000, the total program cost will be approximately 300 million dollars. The key challenge here is how to fund the program. Issues make this program unaffordable for the city’ including (1) the city has the highest percentage of homes built during the1940s of any large cities in the U.S. Old buildings tend to have a higher potential of lead poisoning issue. (2) the city has nearly 60% rentership rate. Renters won’t have the willingness to pay the program. (3) the city’s service line ownership structure that property owners are responsible for maintaining the entire service line. Property owners would not bear the costs, which could be doubled due to the structure, of the replacement neither.

The purpose of my professional report is to aid the city of Buffalo in their project on how to identify the most cost-effective and practical solutions for financing the lead service line replacement. This professional report seeks to accomplish the following objectives:

1. Compiling a list of the financing solutions implemented by previous lead service replacement programs in comparable cities.
2. Evaluating the costs and benefits of the most promising financing option for Buffalo in order to identify suitable strategies. Estimate total net benefits as well as the distribution of costs and benefits across key stakeholders. Identify options with highest net benefits, compared to a baseline scenario without a financing program.