Debate kit Grade 10 English Language Arts
Who Pays to Replace a Lead Service Line? A Grade 10 Debate Kit
A grade 10 debate kit on whether homeowners or the utility should pay to replace the private-property portion of a lead service line, with two-sided evidence.
Objectives
- Students will evaluate evidence on both sides of a water infrastructure cost-allocation resolution.
- Students will construct and deliver a rebuttal supported by named evidence.
- Students will distinguish a documented statistic from an illustrative, fictional testimony.
Vocabulary
- Lead service line
- A lead service line is an old water pipe made of lead metal that connects a house to the water main. Lead can get into the drinking water, so these pipes are being dug up and replaced across the country.
Also: affordability, cost allocation, rate payer
Teacher overview
This is a two-team structured debate for a 50-60 minute block, with rebuttal preparation continuing into a second, shorter session. Federal rules now require utilities to replace nearly all remaining lead service lines within a decade, but a lead service line usually has two owners: the utility owns the portion under the street, and the homeowner typically owns the portion running from the property line to the house. Students argue for or against requiring the fictional city of Larkspur's utility to pay for the entire line, private-side portion included, a resolution with real tension between public health urgency and who should bear the cost.
Resolution & Background
Resolution: "The Larkspur water utility, not the individual homeowner, should pay to replace the private-property portion of a lead service line."
Background: The EPA estimates that about 4 million lead service lines remain in water systems across the United States, based on the service line inventories utilities reported in 2025. These lines are more common in lower-income communities. Federal rules under the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements require utilities to replace nearly all of them within 10 years. At the same time, the lead action level itself is dropping, from 15 to 10 parts per billion in 2027. In many cities, a lead service line has two owners. The utility owns the pipe running under the street. The homeowner typically owns the section running from the property line to the house. A full replacement often needs both owners to act. Some cities pay for the entire line through utility rates. Others require the homeowner to cover their own section, sometimes with a low-interest loan or a payment plan.
Evidence File
Case for the utility paying the full cost:
- Federal rules require replacing nearly all of the roughly 4 million lead service lines that EPA estimates remain, within 10 years. Making replacement depend on a homeowner's ability to pay could slow a city's progress toward that deadline. (Source: EPA Lead and Copper Rule Improvements; EPA 2025 service line estimate.)
- Lead exposure hits lower-income communities the hardest. If homeowners must pay for their own section, the highest-risk households may be the least able to afford it. That would leave lead lines in place longest, right where the health risk is greatest. (Source: EPA LCRI supporting materials.)
- A fictional Larkspur public health nurse's testimony, written for this debate, makes a direct claim: a lead line a homeowner cannot afford to replace remains a hazard for every visitor, delivery driver, and future resident of that house, not only its current owner. (Illustrative testimony created for this debate, not a documented figure.)
Case for homeowners sharing the cost:
- Combined water and sewer bills already rose about 24% nationally from 2019 to 2024. Shifting the full cost of private-side line replacement onto utility rates could push that trend higher for every household in Larkspur, including renters who have no lead line of their own. (Source: Bluefield Research / industry rate surveys.)
- A widely used affordability rule of thumb, built by adding two EPA benchmarks, treats combined water and sewer costs above roughly 4.5% of household income as a high burden. A fictional Larkspur ratepayer association, created for this debate, argues that spreading private-line costs across every bill could push already-struggling households over that line. (Illustrative argument created for this debate.)
- A fictional Larkspur city council member's position paper, written for this debate, makes a fairness argument: homeowners already pay for other private-property repairs, such as a broken sewer lateral. Replacing a lead line, the paper argues, is a permanent improvement that adds value the owner keeps.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Rubric
| Criterion | Emerging | Developing | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evidence use | Repeats a claim with no cited evidence | Cites one piece of evidence without explaining its relevance | Cites at least two pieces of evidence and explains how each supports the team's position | Cites multiple pieces of evidence, explains their relevance, and distinguishes documented facts from illustrative testimony |
| Rebuttal quality | Does not respond to the opposing team's points | Responds to an opposing point but without new evidence | Directly rebuts a specific opposing point using evidence from the file | Rebuts multiple opposing points and explains why the team's evidence outweighs them |
| Organization & delivery | Argument is difficult to follow; no clear structure | Argument has a structure but transitions are unclear | Argument follows a clear claim-evidence-conclusion structure | Argument is clearly structured, confidently delivered, and directly responsive to the resolution |
Differentiation
Support (below grade level)
Provide a simplified evidence card for each side listing only the single strongest point, and give sentence starters for rebuttals ("Our opponents claim ___, but the evidence shows ___.").
Extension (above grade level)
Ask students to research, using only the Evidence File provided and not outside sources, what a low-interest loan or payment plan mentioned in the background might look like for a homeowner, and incorporate that reasoning into a stronger rebuttal.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "lead service line," "affordability," "cost allocation," and "rate payer" with simple definitions and a labeled diagram showing the utility-owned and homeowner-owned sections of a service line. Allow students to deliver rebuttals from written notes rather than extemporaneously.
Extensions
Ask students to draft a one-paragraph compromise policy that splits the difference between the two positions, such as a matching-grant program where the utility covers half the private-side cost, and explain in writing which piece of evidence from the file most influenced their compromise.