Hinsdale Faces $6M Lead Line Replacement Project

HINSDALE, IL – The state and federal governments are requiring that towns replace their lead lines.

In Hinsdale, officials say 300 homes have such pipes, or 5 percent of all users.

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The local lead line project is expected to cost $6 million over a decade.

While that's a lot, it's not much compared to other towns.

In La Grange, the village government expects to replace lead lines for two-thirds of households, costing $68 million. An official there described the situation as "depressing."

Like many towns, Hinsdale is grappling with how much residents with lead pipes will pay toward the project. Some towns cover all the costs.

A resident owns the part of the pipe from the valve, known as the B-box, to the home.

At Tuesday's Village Board meeting, Trustee Luke Stifflear said the residents' share is a "policy dilemma."

"This is one I really struggle with. I would like to say that the village should just go and pay for the replacement of the 300 homes that have lead pipes," he said.

But he said that would mean spreading the costs of 5 percent of users to everyone in what he called an "economically strained environment."

"I can understand that if it were on public property, but it's on private property," he said. "We just told Sixth Street residents that they have to pay for a portion of their public road in order to replace the existing brick."

Officials said Hinsdale's percentage of lead lines is lower, in part, because many homes have been replaced, meaning the elimination of such pipes.

Lead pipes become dangerous for users when they corrode. In the mid-1980s, the government banned the installation of such lines.

The Village Board did not decide on the resident's share at Tuesday's meeting, but is expected to do so later.