City could reduce costs to replace lead pipes where homeowners previously opted out of work

A City of Saskatoon committee is recommending the city continue to share the costs of replacing remaining private lead lines where the city had already replaced public pipes.

Roughly 256 homes in Saskatoon previously opted out of a 60-40 cost-sharing program when crews replaced city water connections.

Prior to 2010, homeowners were given the option to not replace their section of the pipe as the city dug up the street in front of their property.

Since 2010, replacing the lead pipe has become mandatory.

Costs to replace the pipes were estimated at between $7,500 and $9,000 for each home at the time. Since then, the cost to replace the private side has been reduced to $4,000 to $6,000 based on recent tender pricing.

During the 60-40 cost-sharing program, a capped amount of $3,520 paid by the homeowners was established as the city attempts to have all lead pipes removed from its water system by 2026.

During a meeting Monday, the city’s utilities committee supported a plan to offer that same capped amount of $3,520 to the private side replacement before the city would pay for any additional costs.

“The estimates are different when it’s one side only,” Coun. Hilary Gough said Tuesday. “What’s comparable and fair is to give people access to something that would be similar to what they had access to with the full program where (the city) is replacing both the public side and private side.”

The capped dollar amount was calculated based on the average cost of the private line replacement based on previous work.

“We’ve said, ‘We’ll expect the property owner to pay that and we’ll pay the rest,’ ” Gough said.

Complicating the matter for the 256 homes which previously chose not to replace their water lines is changing ownership.

When the matter was previously discussed by council in March, nearly half of the homes had been sold — potentially multiple times — since the work was done, meaning current homeowners could have no knowledge their house has lead water lines that need replacing.

“The fairness is really what we’re trying to get at. It’s not infrastructure that we think about often, yet the reality is our community is better off if we can bring that infrastructure up to a modern standard,” Gough said.

“There is no one right fair way to do this.”

The city would pay an average of $480 to $2,480 towards the replacement of the water pipes, based on the committee’s recommendation. Any costs up to $3,520 could be deferred to property taxes.

In March, four options were presented to council, including forcing homeowners to pay for the replacement and not requiring the replacement.

Several options were presented to council Monday, including forcing homeowners to pay for the replacement and have the option of deferring costs to property taxes.

The final option supported by Coun. Darren Hill was to not require homeowners to replace the lead lines.

City council has yet to approve the recommendation. The next meeting is scheduled for Aug. 30.