Biden Gives Cities 10 Years to Replace Lead Pipes, Safeguard Water

President Joe Biden is launching a 10-year plan to replace lead pipes across the U.S., a bold effort to ensure safe drinking water nationwide, ten years following the alarm raised by the Flint, Michigan, water crisis. Biden is set to announce the final Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule in Wisconsin, underscoring the priority placed on safe drinking water by Vice President Kamala Harris. This new rule supersedes a looser standard by the Trump administration, incorporating a universal lead pipe replacement requirement.

“A moral imperative” is how Biden and Harris describe the necessity of access to clean drinking water, according to EPA Administrator Michael Regan. Over 9 million legacy lead pipes persist in the country’s water infrastructure, despite clear scientific consensus that any level of lead in drinking water is unsafe.

The newly implemented rule, the most potent revamp of lead-in-water standards in about 30 years, aims to mitigate the harmful effects of lead, a neurotoxin known to cause behavioral issues, brain damage, inhibited children’s development, lower IQ scores, and increased blood pressure in adults.

The stricter standard set by the EPA could prevent up to 900,000 infants from being born with low weight and avoid up to 1,500 premature deaths a year due to heart disease. It mandates the lead concentrations in water to not exceed an “action level” of 10 parts per billion, a decrease from the former 15 parts per billion standard. Water systems must educate the public about lead exposure protection and take steps to minimize risks while systematically replacing lead pipes when high lead levels are detected.

Disproportionately affecting low-income urban areas, lead pipes are mostly found in older industrial regions, including major cities like Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Detroit, and Milwaukee. These cities will see Biden and Regan announce the new standards.

The rule also modifies how lead levels are measured, potentially increasing the amount of cities and water systems found to have excessive lead levels. The EPA projects that an additional $2.6 billion will be provided for drinking water infrastructure upgrades, alongside $35 million in competitive grants to reduce lead in drinking water.

The 10-year timeline will commence in three years, allowing water utilities sufficient preparation time. Cities with larger volumes of lead pipes may receive an extended timeframe to meet the new standard.

Biden will declare the new standard in Milwaukee, a city with the nation’s fifth-highest lead pipe count. Federal infrastructure law funds are being used there to fast-track lead pipe replacement and achieve a goal of complete removal within 10 years.

Lead pipes can corrode and taint drinking water, and their removal significantly reduces the risk of water crises. Flint’s change in drinking water source over a decade ago led to increased corrosion and resultant high lead levels in tap water, a scenario echoed in various other cities.

The EPA’s original lead and copper rule reduced lead in tap water significantly over the past 30 years, but loopholes allowed minimal action when lead levels became too high. Erik Olson from the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council called the EPA’s new action “a leap forward in protecting the health of tens of millions of Americans”.

However, the formidable task of removing lead pipes from the ground lies ahead. Administration-proposed strict new drinking water standards also call for billions to be spent on public health improvements, despite industry group American Water Works Association cautioning prohibitive costs.

Fifteen Republican attorneys general have criticized the underfunded, unworkable, and unnecessary EPA rule, expressing concern that homeowners might be required to cover replacement costs for pipe sections on their property. The EPA maintains that billions in federal grants will aid communities with pipe replacements.

Regan emphasizes the rule’s benefits outweigh its costs, hailing the rule as strategic, legally sound, and supported by science. Meanwhile, many cities await initial pipe inventories due this month, unsure of their pipe compositions, which hampers efficient replacement efforts.