As Brookfield works to complete its state-mandated project to replace all leaded water service lines in town, residents are allowed to upgrade the size of their home’s water line from one inch to 1.5 inches in diameter if they pay the difference in cost. But for some residents, the village will cover the costs due to a quirk in the pricing for the new lines that makes the larger sizes cheaper.
Village trustees unanimously approved a resolution on Oct. 27 formalizing the new policy, which says Brookfield’s contractor for the project can perform upgrades in the size of a water line at the homeowner’s request as the lead portion of the line is replaced with copper. Previously, the village’s policy stated the contractor would not perform such upgrades.
The new policy carves out exceptions for lines that are found to be copper, which the village will not upgrade or replace at all. If the public side of the line is lead but the private side is copper, a resident who wants an upgrade must pay for the entire private portion of that work and the cost differential for the public side.
The full policy is available to read in a memo included in trustees’ agenda packet for the meeting.
The policy only applies to residents whose water service lines are scheduled to be replaced as part of the village’s multi-year project. Since last year, the village has said it will not reimburse residents who privately replace their lines ahead of schedule.
“We’ve basically said, if the resident has a one-inch lead line that they want replaced, we’re going to pay for and replace it with a one-inch copper line,” Village Manager Tim Wiberg told trustees. “Sometimes, the 1.5-inch copper line is actually cheaper to replace than the one-inch line … If it’s cheaper, it’s win-win that the resident might get a larger capacity water line, and we’ll pay less for the replacement.”
According to a village memo, in 2025, short one-inch water lines cost $8,300 each while short 1.5-inch lines cost only $4,500. For long lines, one-inch runs $8,400 while 1.5-inch runs $4,900. Village Engineer Derek Treichel said the material for the larger lines still costs more, but the contractor chose to bid these prices “for whatever reason.”
For water mains, however, the larger diameter pipes cost more than their smaller counterparts.
At the meeting, Trustee Jennifer Hendricks asked why Brookfield’s policy is not to upgrade all residents’ water lines if it would be cheaper. Wiberg said doing so could place undue costs on the homeowners.
“I believe, if the resident wasn’t contemplating going from a one-inch to a 1.5-inch [line], they would have to change the water meter as well. That would be an expense that they would not be prepared for,” he said.
In response to Hendricks, Treichel said Brookfield and its contractor would not be able to handle upgrading the hundreds of water service lines that need to be replaced. He described the cases that would qualify for village-covered upgrades under the new policy as “anomalies.”
“We’ve only had a handful of them,” he said.
