(AGENPARL) – gio 02 maggio 2024 Issued: May 2, 2024 (9:04am EDT)
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Biden-Harris Administration Announces $3 Billion for 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
WASHINGTON – Today, May 2, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
announced $3 billion from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to
help every state and territory 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
$9 billion in total funding announced to date through EPA’s Lead Service
Line Replacement Drinking Water State Revolving Fund program 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.”
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.
The Lead Service Line-specific formula used to allot these funds allows states
to receive financial assistance commensurate with their need as soon as
possible, furthering public health protection nationwide. The formula and
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.
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:
West View Water Authority in Pennsylvania has received $8 million through the
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to replace 750 lead service lines in underserved
areas of the community — primarily in Allegheny County. Of that funding,
more than $5.4 million is forgivable, reducing the overall financial burden on
ratepayers and the community.
In Tucson, Arizona, the city received $6.95 million in Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law funds to develop lead service line inventories for their
nine public water systems. The city will use this inventory to develop a plan
to replace lead service lines in the community and improve drinking water
quality for residents — many of whom live in low-income and disadvantaged
communities.
Located in between Chicago and Milwaukee, the community of Kenosha, Wisconsin
has been at the forefront of the state’s efforts to remove 5,000 lead
service lines in their community. To accelerate lead service line removal,
Kenosha is working with EPA’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law-funded Water TA
team to help customers self-inventory their service line material and apply
for federal funding to remove and replace lead service lines.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, located across western North Carolina,
has been selected to received support from the Bipartisan Infrastructure
Law’s lead service line replacement funds to conduct service line
inventories and prepare preliminary engineering reports for five of the public
water systems on their land.
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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