Work underway to find, replace lead water lines on Mount Washington

PITTSBURGH — Work is underway to locate and replace lead water lines on Mount Washington.

“It looks like they’re kind of doing it all over the Mount and it’s a bit of maze to navigate around,” said Mount Washington resident Emily Laumer.

Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority says the work is part of the company’s ongoing efforts to replace lead service lines, which began in 2017.

Residents say crews began working in the area of Cushman and Kenova Streets a week or so ago.

Some people, like Nick Huffman, received notice earlier this week that lead was found in the public water lines leading to their homes.

“They gave us a Brita to be able to use to I guess filter out the water from the lead pipes. I didn’t know we had lead in our water either, so that’s also pretty frustrating,” Huffman said.

While crews dig up the streets to reach the water lines, “no parking” signs are posted all over the area.

“It pushes a lot of people to have to park here so it forces everyone else to park on other streets and my partner and her brother are both on crutches right now so they have to crutch like a block and half from where they’re parking,” Laumer said.

The signs say parking is restricted from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekdays until Oct. 8.

Residents say it’s making an already difficult parking situation on Mt. Washington even worse.

“When you can’t park on your street at 7 a.m., that’s fine if it’s just one street, but then all of a sudden, the next street over has the exact same thing, and then the next street over has the exact same thing, and now you’re talking about 25, 30-plus cars that have no where to go, need to park a quarter mile from their house every morning, or get up incredibly early every morning. It’s just frustrating,” Huffman said.

According to PWSA, crews are currently identifying lead lines on Mount Washington and then they will begin removing and replacing them at no cost to residents.

The project is expected to last into the fall.

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