EPA estimates 9.2 million lead water pipes in US, doles out funding to replace some of them

Rachel Frazin
·2 min read
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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on Tuesday that it estimates that there are 9.2 million lead pipes carrying water throughout the country and said it was allocating some of the funds from the bipartisan infrastructure law to replace them.

Exposure to lead — which can occur when lead pipes corrode, causing the substance to get into drinking water — can harm a child’s brain and nervous system and result in slowed growth and development, as well as problems with learning, behavior, hearing and speech.

Lead contamination has been a major problem in the country, including during the Flint, Michigan, water crisis.

The bipartisan infrastructure law provides $15 billion to replace the country’s lead pipes, and the EPA said on Tuesday that about $3 billion from the law would be used for lead service line identification and replacement. Officials told reporters on Monday that the money would be dispersed based on where it is most needed.

When asked on a call with reporters for more information, an administration official did not say how many lead service lines would be replaced by the money that the EPA was dispersing.

The official did acknowledge that the bipartisan infrastructure law’s funds would not be sufficient to address the entire problem — a departure from the White House’s past insistence that it would, despite estimates to the contrary.

The $3 billion for replacing lead pipes was part of a larger total of $6.5 billion announced by the EPA on Tuesday.

The agency also said in a press release that it would disperse $800 million to address other contaminants, including a group of toxic chemicals called PFAS and an additional $2.2 billion for “other critical drinking water system improvements.”

PFAS, which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of man-made chemicals that have become widespread in the nation’s waterways and have been linked to health problems including cancers.

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