stone. LOUIS (AP) — In many cities, no one knows where the lead pipes run underground. This is important because lead pipes can contaminate drinking water. Since the Flint lead crisis, Michigan officials stepped up efforts to find the pipeline, the first step towards its removal.
This means that with billions of dollars of new federal funding available to solve the problem, some places are in a better position than others to quickly apply for funding and start digging.
“Now the problem is that we want to reduce the amount of time vulnerable people are exposed to lead,” said Eric Schwartz, co-CEO of BlueConduit, which uses computer simulations to help communities predict the location of lead pipes.
In Iowa, for example, only a handful of cities have found their leading water pipes, and so far only one – Dubuque – has requested new federal funding to remove them. State officials remain confident they will find their leads before the federal government’s 2024 deadline, giving communities time to apply for funding.
Lead in the body lowers IQ, delays development, and causes behavioral problems in children. Lead pipes can get into drinking water. Removing them eliminates the threat.
Decades ago, millions of lead pipes were buried in the ground to supply tap water to homes and businesses. They are concentrated in the Midwest and Northeast, but are found throughout much of the country. Decentralized record keeping means that many cities don’t know which of their water pipes are made from lead rather than PVC or copper.
Some locations, such as Madison and Green Bay, Wisconsin, have been able to remove their locations. But it’s a costly problem, and historically there has been little federal funding to address it.
“Lack of resources has always been a big problem,” says Radhika Fox, director of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Water Resources Office.
Last year, President Joe Biden signed the infrastructure bill into law, which ultimately gave a huge boost by providing $15 billion over five years to help communities build lead pipes. It’s not enough to just solve the problem, but it will help.
“If you don’t take action and apply, you won’t get paid,” said Eric Olson of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Eric Oswald, superintendent of the Michigan Drinking Water Division, said local authorities could begin work on the replacement before a detailed inventory is completed, but an estimate of where the lead pipes would be would be helpful.
“We need to know that they have identified the main service lines before we can fund the demolition process,” he said.
Lead pipes have been a hazard for decades. In recent years, residents of Newark, New Jersey and Benton Harbor, Michigan have been forced to use bottled water for basic needs like cooking and drinking after tests showed elevated lead levels. In Flint, a predominantly black community, officials initially denied there was a lead problem, focusing the nation’s attention on the health crisis. Subsequently, public trust in tap water declined, especially in black and Hispanic communities.
Shri Vedachalam, director of water and climate resilience at Environmental Consulting & Technology Inc., expressed his hope that the locals would replace the pipes for the benefit of the residents.
There are signs that embarrassment is a motivator. After downplaying high lead levels, Michigan and New Jersey have taken draconian measures to tackle lead in drinking water, including speeding up the mapping process. But in other states, like Iowa and Missouri, that haven’t faced a crisis like this high-profile crisis, things are slower.
In early August, the EPA mandated communities to document their pipelines. The funds will come in according to the needs of each state, Fox said. Technical assistance and facilitation of conditions for low-income sections of the population.
Water testing in Hamtramck, a city of nearly 30,000 people surrounded by Detroit, regularly shows alarming levels of lead. The city assumes that most of its pipes are made of the troublesome metal and are working on replacing them.
In Michigan, pipeline replacement is so popular that locals have asked for more funds than is available.
The EPA distributes early funding using a formula that doesn’t take into account the number of lead pipes in each state. As a result, some states receive significantly more money for lead pipe than others. The agency is working to fix this in the coming years. Michigan hopes that if the states don’t spend the money, the money will eventually go to them.
BlueConduit’s Schwartz said officials should be careful not to miss plumbing inspections in poor areas to ensure inventory accuracy. Otherwise, if richer regions have better documentation, they can get alternative funding faster, even if they don’t need as much.
Dubuque, a city on the Mississippi River of about 58,000, needs more than $48 million to replace about 5,500 pipes containing lead. Mapping work began several years ago and previous officials have ensured that it has been properly updated and is expected to become a federal requirement one day. They are right.
These past efforts have made it easier to apply for funding, said Christopher Lester, manager of the city’s water department.
“We are lucky that we can increase the reserves. We don’t have to try to catch up,” Lester said.
The Associated Press has received support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The Associated Press is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.
Post time: Oct-21-2022