Biden’s government wants to address the lead water pipeline issue and is proposing to replace 100% of the country’s lead and utility lines.
The American employment plan, released on Wednesday, will reduce lead exposure in 400,000 schools and daycare centers and 6 to 10 million households, and create union and predominant wage jobs, according to the government. To fund the plan, Biden said he would ask Congress to invest $ 45 billion in the EPA’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and water infrastructure improvement grants for the Nation Act (WIIN).
Several proponents praised the plan, and John Rumpler, Clean Water Program Director for Environment America, called it “the greatest step we’ve seen in this century to reverse lead pollution in our drinking water.”
However, others say the plan is still not big enough, partly because the full extent of the nation’s lead pipe problems is unknown.
“Some lines are easier to repair than others because they’re just underground,” said Brett Hartl, director of government affairs at the Center for Biodiversity. “But some are in houses, which is more difficult because you have to tear out the wall, and main lines can be mixtures of different composites and materials. Nobody knows the scope of the problem. So it’s unlikely that that’s enough money. “
Lead pipe records are shaky at best and offer little help, added Marc Edwards, a civil and environmental engineering professor who specializes in water infrastructure issues at Virginia Tech University.
The Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that maintaining and upgrading the country’s sewage and drinking water infrastructure will cost about $ 750 billion over the next 20 years.
“A huge elevator”
Innovative approaches to funding and the requirement for public-private partnerships to get the job done “would be a big boost,” said Matt Kline, partner at O’Melveny & Myers LLP. There’s a lot of pent-up demand to invest in water infrastructure, he said.
Repairing dangerous and leaking water pipes “is not just common sense, it’s also good business sense,” said Bob Keefe, executive director of E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs).
“Somebody needs to dig out these aging pipelines and replace them with modern ones that won’t make our children sick and provide the lifeline of clean water for consumers and businesses alike,” said Keefe. “That means jobs – well-paying jobs that, in many cases, are stable union jobs too.”
The EPA has estimated that there are between 6.5 million and 10 million lead service lines across the country, and the average replacement cost is about $ 4,700 per line.
Since 2017, the agency has provided around US $ 1.1 billion annually to states under the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and around US $ 1.6 billion annually over the same period to the Clean Water State Revolving Fund.
The Biden plan also requires long-term commitment from various parties. Realistically, “if we really focus on it,” Edwards said it will take 10 years to complete the plan.
Consent of the homeowner
Another complication is the fact that water systems alone cannot replace all of the country’s public and private pipelines, said Dianne VanDe Hei, CEO of the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies.
This work “requires the consent and collaboration of the homeowner, who is typically responsible for the cost of replacing his privately owned portion of the line,” she said.
Many water companies offer support or payment plans to help lower the cost of homeowners. “Ultimately, replacing 100 percent of the country’s plumbing will require every homeowner with a private plumbing to work with their local water system to do the job,” said VanDe Hei.
Even so, it is long overdue to look seriously at the full replacement of lead service lines, Edwards said. “This has been a scourge in this country for over 100 years.”
States and localities are the main owners of most of the nation’s infrastructure and have had to fund the replacement of lead pipes themselves for years, said Joseph Kane, a senior research fellow at the Brookings Institution.
For them, “getting more security out of Washington,” said Kane, is a good thing.
The Biden Plan will be of the greatest benefit to communities for environmental justice, Edwards said.
“They spend a lot of money on bottled water and filters,” he said. “And they can least afford it. This is a very serious societal problem that affects public health and undermines confidence in one of our most basic necessities, namely drinking water. “
Courts, Congress involved
Meanwhile, a group of states are petitioning a federal appeals court to review the latest EPA regulations for lead and copper drinking water pipes.
In December, the agency enacted a regulation to reduce the percentage of lead pipes in a water system that must be replaced every year. Nine states and the District of Columbia have asked the District of Columbia Circuit Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn certain aspects of the rule.
Legislators have already started legislation to invest in safer drinking water and to replace harmful infrastructure.
The House Energy and Trade Democrats unveiled a $ 300 billion (HR 1848) infrastructure package earlier this month that would allow the Drinking Water State to approve $ 22.5 billion for pipeline replacement in drinking water Revolving Fund over the next few years.
The Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works unanimously passed the bipartisan Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act of 2021 (p. 914) on March 24, which, according to a country summary, spends more than $ 35 billion in projects to develop Investing in water resources across the country would take into account. This legislation includes a provision to re-approve the EPA’s lead reduction grant program and increase the funding level to $ 100 million per year by fiscal year 2026.
The legislation is “so important to my home state,” said Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) During the serve. Illinois has “exponentially more lead water mains than any other state in the nation” and “we are also a state that sees significant injustices of infrastructure and environmental injustice.”
Brookings’ Kane characterized the Biden Plan as “positioning” prior to the action of Congress.
“There are many good, necessary investments in infrastructure bills, but simply positioning the need to do so is different from actually getting it over the finish line,” he said.
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