(AGENPARL) - Roma, 2 Maggio 2024 - (AGENPARL) – gio 02 maggio 2024 Issued: May 2, 2024 (1:40pm EDT)
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Biden-Harris Administration Announces $29,917,000 for Maryland 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, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced
$29,917,000 from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to help
Maryland 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.”
“Across our region, states are getting boosts from the Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law that will improve lives, strengthen communities, and
protect our most vulnerable populations,” said EPA Mid-Atlantic Regional
Administrator Adam Ortiz. “This funding brings us much closer to replacing
all lead service lines throughout the nation.”
“Everyone deserves clean, safe drinking water, no matter their zip code. The
fast and equitable replacement of lead pipes is a public health imperative.”
said Senator Ben Cardin. “Thanks to historic investments in infrastructure
by Congress and the Biden-Harris administration in Maryland and across the
nation, we are eliminating lead service lines and removing risks to
underserved communities.”
“Lead water pipes are still in use in far too many of our communities, and
particularly in those that have been historically underserved. This funding
from the infrastructure modernization law is a historic investment in
eliminating lead service lines along with the health risks they pose – and a
key step toward ensuring the water Marylanders drink is safe,” said Senator
Chris Van Hollen.
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. 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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