(AGENPARL) – gio 02 maggio 2024 Issued: May 2, 2024 (10:22am EDT)
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EPA Announces Over $30M for Iowa Lead Pipe Replacement to Advance Safe
Drinking Water, as Part of Investing in America Agenda
Announcement is 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
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7 – 11201 Renner Blvd., Lenexa,
KS 66219
Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Nine Tribal Nations
EPA Announces Over $30M for Iowa Lead Pipe Replacement to Advance Safe
Drinking Water, as Part of Investing in America Agenda
Announcement is 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
Contact Information: Jonathan Klusmeyer, 913-343-2991,
LENEXA, KAN. (MAY 2, 2024) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) announced $30,066,000 from President Biden’s Investing in America
Agenda to help Iowa 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.”
“We know that young children face the greatest risk for health problems
caused by lead exposure,” said EPA Region 7 Administrator Meghan A.
McCollister. “This historic funding to replace lead service lines is a
significant step toward a healthier tomorrow for our Heartland communities and
future generations.”
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 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
funding.
Alongside the funding announced today, EPA is also releasing a new 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.
To view 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
the one-time update submissions. 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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Learn more about EPA Region 7
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