North Dakota cities and towns are working to replace old lead water service lines.
And the state has set up a revolving loan fund to help.
Shannon Fisher is the drinking water state revolving fund manager. She said North Dakota has so far received $56 million from the bipartisan infrastructure bill. That was for the years 2022 and 2023.
"That's available for both lead service line replacements and lead service line inventories," Fisher said.
Fisher said so far, two North Dakota communities have applied for the loans.
"Bismarck and Grand Forks are both actively conducting lead service line replacements," Fisher said.
Fisher said it’s a little bit surprising that only those two cities have applied for the loans thus far.
"Right now, I think the communities are focused on completing their inventories," Fisher said. "That will be a big part of the new lead-and-copper rules, and that's required to be done by the end of October."
Fisher said she expects that after those inventories are completed, the communities will be prepared to come in and obtain some funding for replacements.
