Opinion/Levy and Brown: State must commit to removing lead from our water system
Devra Levy is the organizer for Childhood Lead Action Project. Kristina Brown is program Officer of Housing & Economic Policy for United Way of Rhode Island.
This legislative session saw the passage of many major health and environmental bills. From banning toxic chemicals in food packaging (PFAS) to requiring that 100 percent of our electricity come from renewable sources by 2033, the General Assembly made great strides in addressing critical issues.
However, a key piece of legislation to ensure access to safe, clean, and lead-free drinking water did not pass through the House. This is both disappointing and upsetting.
The proposed legislation would have made possible for all the lead pipes in Rhode Island’s drinking water infrastructure – both public and private lines – to be replaced, getting lead out of our water delivery system once and for all.
Good news for homeowners: Residents sign up for new lead-free service lines.
Lead poisoning is a serious children’s health issue with lifelong consequences that affects far too many Rhode Island kids each year. Exposure to lead in drinking water is known to cause brain damage, resulting in stunted growth, learning disabilities, and hyperactivity. In addition to the well-known threats of lead paint in older homes and in contaminated soil, contaminated drinking water from lead pipes exist everywhere in our state.
For 14 of the last 16 years, Rhode Island’s largest water utility, Providence Water, has tested above the EPA action level for lead in drinking water.
In response to the community’s growing concern of lead in our drinking water, the Childhood Lead Action Project convened the Lead-Free Water RI Coalition to raise awareness of the risk of lead in our drinking water. The Coalition – comprised of community leaders, and environmental and racial justice organizations – and the RI Department of Health helped to shape the proposed legislation to codify efficient and equitable practices in how our lead pipes are replaced. According to RIDOH, we have as many as 35,000 residential properties that receive their water through a lead pipe.
Yet despite the failure of the legislation, Rhode Island is set to receive over $140 million in federal funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for lead pipe replacement. With this funding, we could replace up to 29,000 lead pipes over the course of the bill’s five-year spending period. This is a huge and exciting opportunity for our state that could result in cleaner drinking water for thousands of Rhode Island families.
More opinion: Opinion/Patinkin: Despite controversy, RI's diverse communities embrace new soccer stadium
However, without clear implementation guidelines from state leaders to replace all lead pipes, our communities remain at risk of continued exposure to toxic lead in their drinking water.
So, in the face of this transformational federal funding, the Lead-Free Water RI Coalition is asking state leaders to commit to ensuring that lead is completely removed from our drinking water system. And that communities at the highest risk of lead exposure are invested in first.
Priority must be given to neighborhoods with the highest levels of lead exposure and lead poisoning, which are often home to a large concentration of children, low-income households, and communities of color.
The best way to accomplish this is to replace all lead pipes within the next 10 years, removing the public and private side pipe at the same time with no cost to property owners. Just as beneficial, jobs created by replacing the pipes should employ Rhode Islanders and create apprenticeships to train community members. Of course, to do this well, it is imperative that our leaders establish oversight and coordination with transparency to all residents.
It is critical that we as a state get this right. If we utilize the federal infrastructure funding well, we should be able to remove more than 80 percent of the lead pipes in our state, protecting cleaner drinking water for generations of Rhode Islanders. Now is the time to get the lead out of our water once and for all.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Levy & Brown: State must commit to removing lead from our water system
