Press Release

Pittsburgh, PA – With an additional $25.5 million funding award from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PENNVEST), Pittsburgh Water continues the progress towards its goal to remove all residential lead service lines from Pittsburgh neighborhoods by 2027.   

The funding will support the removal of 578 public lead service lines and 1,073 private lead lines from homes across its drinking water service area. This funding package will come in the form of $14,214,403 in grants, which will not need to be paid back to PENNVEST, as well as $11,275,597 in low-interest loans. Today’s award is in addition to $89.7 million in loans and $108.6 million in grant funds previously secured for Pittsburgh Water’s Lead Service Line Replacement Program.  

Starting in 2026, Pittsburgh Water will use these funds to remove lead service lines in portions of 15 Pittsburgh neighborhoods. This work is estimated to generate $41.4 million in economic activity for our region while providing customers with safe, high-quality drinking water.

• Allegheny Center 
• East Allegheny/Troy Hill 
• East Liberty 
• Greenfield 
• Larimer 
• Lower Lawrenceville 
• Morningside 
• Point Breeze 
• Point Breeze North 
• Polish Hill 
• Bedford Dwellings 
• Strip District 
• Squirrel Hill North 
• Squirrel Hill South 
• Stanton Heights 

“Low-interest loans and grants from PENNVEST and U.S. EPA allow us to balance our other ratepayer-funded investment priorities while still maintaining an aggressive pace toward our goal of addressing all residential lead lines in our service area by 2027,” said Pittsburgh Water CEO Will Pickering. We are very grateful for our partnership with our federal and state partners to fund these investments in safe drinking water,” he continued.

Prioritizing Equitable Investments

Lead service lines are found throughout Pittsburgh Water’s service area, meaning there is not one geographic space it can target to remove lead. For this reason, careful planning must go into site selection for this project. Since 2018, Pittsburgh Water has used a prioritization model to determine which areas would receive lead service line replacements. The model considers the following demographic and historic data: 

• Concentrations of women of childbearing age and children under the age of six, per Census data 
• Concentrations of children with elevated blood-lead levels, per Allegheny County Health Department testing data 
• Income, per Census data 
• Records of lead service lines, per Pittsburgh Water’s inventory 

This data is weighted and mapped to identify areas with the highest need. This visual model allows construction planners to determine future work locations. As the program nears 100% replacement of residential lead service lines, Pittsburgh Water cites this priority model as a transparent, data-driven method to apply state and federal funds in an equitable and efficient manner.  

The upcoming lead line replacement project reinforces Pittsburgh Water’s ongoing commitment to remove lead from Pittsburgh’s drinking water infrastructure and improve public health through targeted, data-driven investments. 

Road to 2027

Remaining lead lines will be replaced through geographically-focused projects like this one, alongside water main replacements and routine individual replacements when lead lines leak or fail.  

The rapid pace of this work would not be possible without the continuous support of PENNVEST funding, which makes this work more affordable for ratepayers and allows Pittsburgh Water to prioritize its capital budget, funded by ratepayer dollars, to other needed infrastructure investments, like sewer rehabilitation and the ongoing Water Reliability Plan.