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Cincinnati’s effort to replace dangerous residential lead service lines has been marred by employee misconduct, financial loss, and glaring management failures.
While some workers have been reprimanded or dismissed, the larger scandal lies in the city’s lack of oversight — a pattern that repeats across departments and contracts.
The Cincinnati lead pipe scandal goes beyond one rogue employee. The city’s failure to track high-value materials like lead, enforce basic recycling protocols, or respond transparently to public records requests raises serious questions about how taxpayer dollars are managed — or wasted.
How Lead Was Misappropriated in Broad Daylight
According to the 2025 audit of the Lead Service Line Replacement Program, the City failed to monitor the value and quantity of lead being removed during Cincinnati lead pipe replacements. Despite a contract with a scrap metal recycler to return a portion of the value back to the city, the audit found:
“Metrics do not exist to determine the amount and monetary value of recycled lead. The container had not been serviced for five years.”
— Lead Service Line Replacement Program Audit
In short, city employees had access to a scrap pile of valuable lead — with zero tracking or accountability. One Waterworks crew member allegedly removed Cincinnati lead pipes from job sites, stockpiled them offsite, and sold them for personal gain. Management did not notice until the audit raised questions.
A Pattern of Missing Oversight
The scandal is not just about theft. It’s about a government-wide culture of neglect. In a separate audit earlier this year, another city-funded program — the Regional Economic Development Initiative (REDI) — could not account for over $11,000 in taxpayer spending. Yet no action was taken. City Council simply renewed their funding.
This is how waste becomes normalized:
No controls
No follow-up
No consequences
The lack of urgency around these issues suggests city leadership views fraud and loss as the cost of doing business, rather than a call for reform.
Why Lead Pipe Tracking Matters
From 2020 to 2025, the Waterworks department replaced roughly 6,000 lead service lines. Yet the city only documented about 1,333 during the audit window. This leaves thousands of high-value pipes untracked — and possibly uncollected.
Even more disturbing, no effort has been made to recover contract costs or hold any outside vendors accountable.
Lead pipes are not just a health hazard — they’re a public asset when recycled. Losing track of them means losing real dollars.
What the Cincinnati Lead Pipe Waterworks Audit Recommends
The internal audit outlined a list of failures and recommendations:
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Implement tracking systems for all removed and recycled lead.
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Require weekly inspections of scrap containers.
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Institute mandatory, recurring employee training for lead removal crews.
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Maintain detailed records of abandoned lead lines left underground.
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Enforce recycling expectations with both internal staff and third-party contractors.
City management agreed with these recommendations — but agreeing isn’t the same as acting.
No Response to Public Records Request
On September 21, 2025, I filed a public records request to obtain the internal investigation from Waterworks. As of this article’s publication, the City has not responded.
This silence reflects another kind of failure — the erosion of transparency and public trust.
What Happens Next?
The citizens of Cincinnati deserve more than apologies and audit reports. We deserve:
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Actionable reform
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Real oversight
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Transparent tracking of public assets
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Regular reporting on recycling revenues and cost recovery
Until that happens, these failures will continue — quietly draining millions from the city budget with no paper trail.
More Resources
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📄 Download the Audit: Lead Service Line Replacement Program Audit (August 2025)
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🎧 Podcast Ep. 31: Cincinnati’s Mismanaged Lead Pipe Program
This isn’t about lead pipes. It’s about accountability. It’s about protecting public funds, restoring confidence in local government, and refusing to accept dysfunction as the status quo.
About the Author
Todd Zinser is a certified fraud examiner, retired Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Commerce, and host of Citizen Watchdog. He writes at CincinnatiWatchdog.com.
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