“Thanks to President Biden’s infrastructure investments, we have an unprecedented opportunity to revitalize America’s drinking water systems, support the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of removing 100% of lead pipes across our country, and protect communities from PFAS pollution.” “Every community deserves access to safe, clean drinking water,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan who was in Illinois for the announcement. The $15 billion from the infrastructure law for lead pipe work will significantly help, but it won’t be enough, to solve the problem. The Biden administration has set a goal to remove all of the country’s lead water pipes.
Lead can cause brain damage and the EPA says no amount is safe for children’s bodies. Previously, a state’s share of lead pipe funds was based on its general infrastructure need and didn’t consider how many lead pipes the state had. The agency’s drinking water infrastructure survey will be used to steer billions of dollars from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to water infrastructure upgrades like finding and removing lead pipes in states that need it most. Illinois ranked second in Tuesday’s survey, with 1.04 million lead pipes, followed by Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and New York.
Industrial states like Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania are more typically associated with extensive lead pipe issues. Florida, with an estimated 1.16 million pipes, was a surprise to one expert. The survey released Tuesday was the first time the agency asked about lead pipes and gave the best count yet of how many are underground. Some 9.2 million lead pipes carry water into homes across the U.S., with more in Florida than any other state, according to a new Environmental Protection Agency survey that will dictate how billions of dollars to find and replace those pipes are spent.
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