The City of Kalamazoo held several events Thursday to mark the replacement of 5,000 lead service lines.
Much of the funding for removing the pipes comes from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the American Rescue Plan. The City of Kalamazoo has received $11.9 million so far.
Senior Advisor to President Joe Biden and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Tom Perez was in Kalamazoo Thursday to take part in the celebration.
Perez said the Biden Administration set an ambitious goal to replace all lead service lines across the country within 10 years.
“It's not going to take 10 years for a Kalamazoo to meet that goal, because you are so far ahead of most other cities in the country, quite frankly.”
Earlier this month those goals turned into new U.S. Environmental Protection Administration rules.
“The good news is you didn’t wait for the EPA to do something. You've already been ahead of the curve here. Five thousand lead service lines already replaced,” said Perez.
Perez toured the progress in Kalamazoo with Mayor David Anderson, City Manager Jim Ritsema, and Public Services Director James Baker.
Baker said the next removals will start November 1 in the Edison neighborhood. In two years, he said, the city will have replaced 7,600 of its 10,000 lead service lines.
