The money comes from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Crews will replace lead pipes in two areas west of the Rock River and one area on the city's northeast side, including blocks where homes date back to the 1840s. The work is expected to take about three years, though the city cautions that the schedule could shift.

Residents in the affected neighborhoods should expect temporary disruptions to streets where crews need to reach the buried lines.

Chanel Fitch-Kirkpatrick, Beloit's director of water resources, said the project is a long-term investment even though the construction timeline is measured in years.

"If we do it right, we're going to get 20, 30, [or] 50 years out of it," she said.

The state grant will launch the replacement program but will not cover all of its costs. Digging up roads to access the pipes and repaving them afterward are not included, and the city has not yet settled on how to pay for that portion of the work. Beloit hopes to secure loans, but no funding plan is final.

"We don't have a plan in place yet on how we're going to handle that," Fitch-Kirkpatrick said. "We've had a lot of conversations internally. We know that we have to fund that."

The city plans to hire private contractors to replace service lines on private property while city employees handle the public-side lines.

Lead service lines are a well-documented health threat, particularly to children and pregnant women, and utilities across Wisconsin and the country have been racing to remove them. Beloit's older housing stock makes the city a priority for replacement, and the state award puts it among the communities receiving DNR backing for the work.