ESCANABA — Lead service line replacement work in Escanaba will be performed by Oberstar, Ic., a company based in Marquette. The Escanaba City Council approved awarding the contract to Oberstar in the amount of $3,812,589.30 during a special meeting Thursday. The contract award was made contingent on receipt of project financing from the State of Michigan under its State Revolving Loan program.

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) has mandated all lead service lines across the state be replaced by Jan. 1, 2041. Under EGLE’s rules, municipalities are responsible for the entirety of the cost for line replacements, replacements must be made from the service to the meter inside each home, and any line downstream of lead — such as a copper pipe connected to a main by a lead gooseneck — is considered contaminated.

Across the city, there are roughly 5,200 service lines, roughly 4,000 to 4,200 of which are considered lead service lines under EGLE’s rules. Line replacements have already begun in the city, with somewhere between 90 and 100 services replaced in 2021 and additional services were replaced after the rules were rolled out in 2018, but there are still thousands more to be replaced.

The cost for the replacements also has jumped significantly since EGLE’s mandate was first released, according to Escanaba Water and Wastewater Superintendent Jeff Lampi.