Seth Wenig/AP Photo
Workmen prepare to replace older water pipes with a new copper one in Newark, New Jersey, October 21, 2021.
In November, the Biden administration proposed an update to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Lead and Copper Rule. Besides updating requirements for utilities regarding water quality, the proposal amends the timeline in which the administration aims to make the country “lead-free.”
The EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) largely governs the abatement of lead in drinking water. The agency estimates there are more than nine million lead service lines delivering water to households across the country.
The Biden administration has repeatedly made the removal of all lead pipes across the country a priority. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) allocated almost $15 billion to the removal of lead water pipes through revolving funds at the EPA, most specifically the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds (CWSRF and DWSRF). The process has been slow in the years since the 2021 passage of the IIJA.
The update to the Lead and Copper Rule, which has been in place since 1991 and was last updated in 2021, gives water utilities ten years to replace lead water lines, dramatically speeding up the timeline.
“This proposal takes a more direct and proactive approach to public health protection compared to the current requirements that have been in place for far too long,” Elin Warn Betanzo, CEO of Safe Water Engineering, told the Prospect via a spokesperson.
The update also increases tap sampling requirements and requires water utilities to complete comprehensive lead pipe inventories, as well as other smaller requirements to overall reduce lead exposure to communities. Requirements in the LCR also cover lead abatement in air, soil, paint, and food. (Recent revelations about lead being deliberately placed into applesauce pouches as a substitute for cinnamon show the need for a comprehensive approach.)
The task of eliminating lead water pipes, which is a huge undertaking estimated to cost closer to $45 billion to complete, is a core component of Biden’s infrastructure and equity agenda. Biden’s EPA has increased available grants and technical assistance, and specified that no amount of lead exposure is safe in paint or water pipes. According to the administration, as of November $3.5 billion has been distributed from IIJA funding.
The administration has also focused on distributing grants and assistance more equitably, a key concern of the Justice40 Initiative, which sets a goal that 40 percent of all benefits of certain major federal investments go to marginalized communities. Last month, the EPA also announced the Get the Lead Out (GLO) Initiative, which partners with more than 200 disadvantaged communities to provide the technical assistance needed to replace lead lines by providing “hands-on support.”
Technical assistance is important for the goal to be equitably achieved, just as it’s important to marginalized communities in grantmaking. Historically, smaller, more rural, or majority-minority communities have been overlooked for top-down funding. The administration also noted in the announcement that almost $800 million of already distributed funding went to disadvantaged communities through the EPA’s Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) and DWSRF.
The administration has focused on distributing grants and assistance more equitably, a key concern of the Justice40 Initiative.
As the Prospect has previously covered, a significant barrier to the administration’s goals on lead water pipes is the lack of control water utilities have over the pipes they pump water into. Private water lines are put in by developers, and connected to mains that the water utility owns, leaving water utilities unable to just rip up and replace all lead lines seamlessly.
Denver Water, the water utility that provides lead-free drinking water to the Denver metropolitan area, is on track to meet the ten-year goal. The utility has often been looked at as an example of the progress that water utilities can make in this area. Denver Water offers assistance to private homeowners for replacing lead water lines. As of 2023, more than 21,000 lead service lines have been replaced in the area, and all are expected to be replaced by 2034.
However, some water utilities are not as ready to complete the task. This is where equitable distribution of grant money is important, and where technical assistance can really change the game. Technical assistance for lead abatement is offered through various programs with the EPA, such as GLO; the agency is also working to establish regional technical assistance hubs, according to the administration.
The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has focused its efforts on the ten cities that have the most lead pipes. Chicago, which came in at number one, received a loan of more than $300 million from the EPA through the WIFIA loans. EDF told the Prospect that keeping those cities on track is the only way to meet the ten-year goal.
More funding will be needed. As stated above, 100 percent lead pipe removal is expected to cost anywhere from the EPA’s estimate of $45 billion to $60 billion, between three and four times as much as what the government has reserved. Despite this need, and the uneven playing field, clean-water advocates seem happy with the updates to the LCR. As Roya Alkafaji, manager for the EDF’s Healthy Communities program, told the Prospect, the ten-year goal is “feasible.”
“We need to really make sure that the existing $15 billion is going to disadvantaged communities and those that definitely need the assistance,” Alkafaji said. “The key in all of this is that those communities that meet their state’s disadvantaged community definition are at the front of the line to get that funding.”
