Dive brief:
- The Biden administration issued a final rule on Tuesday that requires drinking water systems across the country to identify and replace lead pipes within 10 yearsaccording to a statement from the EPA. The effort will be cost tens of billions of dollarsaccording to The Washington Post.
- The Improvements to the lead and copper rule they also require more rigorous testing of drinking water and have a lower threshold for communities to take action on lead in their water supplies. The rule imposes the strictest limits on lead in drinking water since the EPA first established the rules in 1993.
- Lead is a potent neurotoxin, and there is no safe level of exposure or known antidote, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Service lines, which connect a home’s plumbing system to the street water main, are usually most important source of lead in drinking wateraccording to the EPA.
Diving knowledge:
The new rule follows an increase in federal funding to address the problem: The Jobs and Infrastructure Investment Act contains $50 billion over five years to support improvements to drinking water and wastewater infrastructure. This includes $15 billion to replace lead service lines and $11.7 billion of state drinking water general revolving funds that can be used for this purpose.
Communities from Milwaukee to Denver have already started address lead pipes with the help of the IIJA funding, according to a press release from the White House. More than 367,000 lead pipes have been replaced during the Biden administration.
According to the EPA, lead pipes are most likely to be found in cities and older homes built before 1986. The agency estimates that up to 9 million homes are served by legacy lead pipes throughout the country The problem is particularly severe in the Midwestern states and Floridaaccording to a map of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Lead is especially harmful to babies, fetuses and children: It can seriously harm children’s mental and physical development, delay learning and irreversibly damage the brain, according to the CDC. In adults, lead can cause increased blood pressure, heart disease, decreased kidney function, and cancer.
“We’ve known for decades that lead exposure has serious long-term impacts on children’s health. Yet millions of lead service lines are still delivering drinking water to homes,” said the EPA Administrator Michael Regan in the statement.
In April of this year, the EPA also established a drinking water standard for PFASwhich have been linked to cancer, immunological and developmental problems and other health impacts. It designated certain types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or “forever chemicals,” as dangerous. Construction companies such as Jacobs, AECOM and WSP said in recent earnings calls that they expect demand for PFAS remediation work to remain strong.
