Contact:
Robert Miranda
414-469-4182
r.miranda414@att.net
MILWAUKEE – Mayor Johnson announced that his administration is going to remove 3,300 lead-service lines (LSLs) this year, instead of the 1,500 his Milwaukee Water Works department declared just a few months ago. The groups say the plan falls short of expectations.
Frontline Community Group, Get The Lead Out Coalition, is hosting a press conference at Milwaukee City Hall on Friday, June 30, 2023, at 2:00pm.
“How can Milwaukee declare itself a leader providing the cleanest, freshest water when tens of thousands of homes have lead service lines, making their water a health risk and putting children in harm’s way?” said Rodney Washington, a member of Freshwater For Life Action Coalition.
The Mayor now wants to remove these LSLs in 20 years instead of the 60-70 years City Hall has been advocating for the past couple of years. Twenty years, however, is still not good enough, the groups say.
“When you compare Milwaukee to cities like Detroit, Michigan removing 5,000 LSLs in 2023 and then stepping it up to 10,000 LSLs to be removed in 2024, and to Newark, New Jersey, which removed over 22,000 LSLs in less than three years, and Denver, Colorado, and Jackson, Mississippi, all removing LSLs at higher rate than Milwaukee, we need to ask: Why can’t Milwaukee keep up with other cities?” said Robert Miranda, a member of the Get The Lead Out steering committee.
The groups say Milwaukee City Hall is failing Milwaukee residents because it lacks urgency and willingness to go after funding like other cities to remove more lead-service lines.
“Why hasn’t Milwaukee signed up for the accelerator program? Why aren’t our elected officials taking advantage of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was signed into law in November 2021 and has a significant amount of money that can flow to the states through [the Environmental Protection Agency] to help with water and sewer systems in cities?” said State Senator Lena Taylor.
Mayor Johnson, we do not accept your vision and we demand removal of LSLs within 10 years or fewer at no cost to single-family home owners and renters. FLAC/GTLO has been demanding this for the past 8 years. Anything short of this is simply lip service, said GTLO.
