(AGENPARL) – gio 02 maggio 2024 Issued: May 2, 2024 (8:51am EDT)
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Biden-Harris Administration announces over $28 million for Vermont lead pipe
replacement to advance safe drinking water as part of Investing in America
agenda
EPA announces latest round of funding toward President Biden’s commitment to
replace every lead pipe in the nation, protecting public health and helping to
deliver safe drinking water
BOSTON (May 2, 2024) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
announced $28,650,000 from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to
help Vermont identify and replace lead service lines, preventing exposure to
lead in drinking water. Lead can cause a range of serious health impacts,
including irreversible harm to brain development in children. To protect
children and families, President Biden has committed to replacing every lead
pipe in the country. Today’s announcement, funded by the Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law and available through EPA’s successful Drinking Water
State Revolving Fund (DWSRF), takes another major step to advance this work
and the Administration’s commitment to environmental justice. This funding
builds on the Administration’s Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan and EPA’s
Get the Lead Out Initiative.
Working collaboratively, EPA and the State Revolving Funds are advancing the
President’s Justice40 Initiative to ensure that 40% of overall benefits from
certain federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are
marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution. Lead exposure
disproportionately affects communities of color and low-income families. The
total funding announced through this program to date is expected to replace up
to 1.7 million lead pipes nationwide, securing clean drinking water for
countless families.
“The science is clear, there is no safe level of lead exposure, and the
primary source of harmful exposure in drinking water is through lead pipes,”
said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “President Biden understands it is
critical to identify and remove lead pipes as quickly as possible, and he has
secured significant resources for states and territories to accelerate the
permanent removal of dangerous lead pipes once and for all.”
“Our goal is simple, yet essential: to assure that everyone has clean, safe
drinking water. That’s why identifying and replacing lead service lines is
crucial; it can protect our communities, especially the most vulnerable, from
lead exposure,” said EPA Regional Administrator David W. Cash. “New
England has some of the oldest housing stock in the country, and no one—no
matter where they live—should have to worry about lead in their drinking
water and what comes out of the tap. This funding from the Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law provides the much-needed resources to help deliver on that
promise—to replace every lead pipe and ensure clean, safe drinking water for
all.”
“When people in the world’s richest country turn on their taps, the water
that comes out should be clean,” said U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders.  “That’s
why I fought hard to pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in our last
Congress and ensure Vermont got its fair share. I am pleased to see the EPA
will be releasing more of the funds from this legislation to support our
state’s communities as they carry out the necessary work to maintain and
upgrade their drinking water infrastructure. I look forward to seeing these
funds implemented as quickly and as effectively as possible so that every
Vermonter in every corner of our state can have access to clean, safe, and
reliable drinking water.”
“Every community deserves to have clean drinking water. That’s why Vermont
has led the country as one of the first states to regulate the use of lead
pipes to service our water systems. Still, too many service lines contaminated
by lead remain in our state, causing serious, long-term health risks that
disproportionately impact marginalized and low-income communities,” said
Senator Peter Welch. “This $28 million investment from the historic
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to remove and replace lead pipes across Vermont
will really make a difference in making sure every community has safe water to
drink.”
“We take seriously the public health risk presented by lead exposure through
drinking water,” said Vermont Agency of Natural Resources Secretary Julie
Moore. “With this substantial funding, we stand poised to expedite the
identification and replacement of lead service lines, improving the well-being
of our communities, and helping us reach our goal of ensuring all Vermonters
have access to safe, clean drinking water.”
President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law invests a historic $15
billion to identify and replace lead service lines. The law mandates that 49%
of funds provided through the DWSRF General Supplemental Funding and DWSRF
Lead Service Line Replacement Funding must be provided as grants and
forgivable loans to disadvantaged communities, a crucial investment for
communities that have been underinvested in for too long. EPA projects a
national total of 9 million lead services lines across the country, based on
data collected from the updated 7th Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey
and Assessment. The funding announced today will be provided specifically for
lead service line identification and replacement and will help every state and
territory fund projects to remove lead pipes and reduce exposure to lead from
drinking water. This Lead Service Line-specific formula allows states to
receive financial assistance commensurate with their need as soon as possible,
furthering public health protection nationwide. To ensure that funding is used
for lead service line related activities, LSLR allotments are based on
need—meaning that states with more projected lead service lines receive
proportionally more.
Alongside the funding announced today, EPA is also releasing a memorandum that
clarifies how states can use this and other funding to most effectively reduce
exposure to lead in drinking water. Additionally, EPA has developed new
outreach documents to help water systems educate their customers on drinking
water issues, health impacts of lead exposure, service line ownership, and how
customers can support the identification of potential lead service lines in
their homes.
The Biden-Harris Administration’s ambitious initiative to remove lead pipes
has already delivered significant results for families across the nation.
Today’s latest funding will ensure more families benefit from these
unprecedented resources, and support projects like these:
Town of Bethel has received $2,500,000 through the Bipartisan Infrastructure
Law to begin a preliminary engineering report and environmental report for
replacing lead service lines.
City of Rutland has received $800,000 through the Bipartisan Infrastructure
Law to inventory lead service lines.
To view more stories about how the unpreceded investments from the Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law are transforming communities across the country, visit
EPA’s Investing in America’s Water Infrastructure Story Map. To read more
about some additional projects that are underway, see EPA’s recently
released Quarterly Report on Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Funded Clean Water
and Drinking Water SRF projects and explore the State Revolving Funds Public
Portal.  
Today’s allotments are based on EPA’s updated 7th Drinking Water
Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment (DWINSA) including an assessment of
newly submitted information. To date, this is the best available data
collected and assessed on service line materials in the United States. Later
this summer, EPA will release an addendum to the 7th DWINSA Report to Congress
which will include the updated lead service line projections. EPA anticipates
initiating data collection, which will include information on lead service
lines, for the 8th DWINSA in 2025.
For more information, including state-by-state allotment of 2024 funding, and
a breakdown of EPA’s lead Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, please visit
EPA’s Drinking Water website.
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