By Gene Kemmeter

Newark, N.J., has become the latest large city in the nation to identify its problem with lead pipes in its water system, joining the ranks of other major communities such as Milwaukee and Flint, MI.

Lead pipe was cheap in the 1900s when many cities were installing water utilities, and most went with the lead piping.

Joel Lemke, Stevens Point public utilities director, said the city has very few lead pipes, even though the water system is more than 120 years old. He attributed the situation to the history of the city water system.

The Stevens Point Water Co. was organized in the spring of 1887 by a private company and construction of the first pumping station and standpipe began in what is now Bukolt Park, using water from the Wisconsin River. The construction was completed in February 1888, and the system included 11 miles of mains, 125 hydrants, a brick pumping station and a steel standpipe nearly 140 feet high.

However, the water from the river was subject to extensive criticism, and a referendum proposed by the Common Council called for the purchase of the utility from the private owners. The vote in 1922 was 1,435 in favor of municipal ownership and 158 against.

The purchase became effective July 1, 1922, with the city borrowing $159,000 to purchase the old water works, plus another $100,000 to finance the development of the new water supply in the Plover River basin with one well, one pumping station and two electrical pumps.

Once that plant began operating in February 1923, the Bukolt Park water works was abandoned, with the site converted for use as a city garage and headquarters for the Street Department.

The water from the Plover River basin gave Stevens Point its reputation as the “City of Wonderful Water,” a slogan in white stones that still graces the grassy hill along the Main Street entrance to Iverson Park.

Lemke said that 1922 decision to put the water source in what is now Iverson Park was a major reason why Stevens Point has so few lead pipes that had been used in the early construction of water services.

The city began installing larger water service pipes in the right-of-way, installing water mains to manholes between two lots where the service was split to serve each individual lot, he said. The larger diameter pipes meant the city had to use galvanized iron instead of lead, he said, and fortunately local plumbers used galvanized iron pipes to connect with the homes.

The original utility had used lead pipes connected to the main in the street with a lead gooseneck-shaped pipe that connected to the water lateral going to homes, just as other communities did.

Through the years, the city utility had replaced the lead connections with galvanized iron during construction projects, he said, but there are still about 100 lead gooseneck connections left in older parts of the city. Within a couple of years, construction will replace those pipes, Lemke said.

The city knows where the lead pipes are, he said, and tests the water every two or three years with the residents’ help. Stevens Point also uses groundwater for its water supply, and that helps with treatment, he said.

Stevens Point fortunately escaped those massive replacement costs, thanks to decisions made nearly a century ago. Now the price to replace those remaining services is a little easier on the pocketbook, and children through the years have avoided a potential problems associated with lead poisoning.