St. Paul Regional Water hires 30 new employees to speed lead line replacement

Over the course of 10 years, St. Paul Regional Water intends to replace every lead pipe servicing private property in St. Paul, free of charge to homeowners.

To accomplish that, the utility is growing its workforce by at least 10 percent, including 30 new hires who start Monday.

The effort to replace lead service lines extending from home water meters got underway last year with the removal of an initial 350 lines. Another 850 could be replaced this year, following the hiring of 30 new employees and additional trainees.

As challenging as it will be to maintain funding and recruit workers, one of the tr...