Lead, a neurotoxin, is particularly dangerous to children. A length of lead pipe being replaced in Newark in 2019.
Credit...Bryan Anselm for The New York Times

Lead Drinking-Water Pipes Must Be Replaced Nationwide, E.P.A. Says

The “historic” rule aims to eliminate a major source of lead poisoning and comes a decade after a drinking-water crisis in Flint, Mich.

by · NY Times

The Biden administration unveiled on Tuesday a landmark rule that would require water utilities to replace virtually every lead pipe in the country within 10 years, tackling a major source of a neurotoxin that is particularly dangerous to infants and children.

President Biden is scheduled to visit Wisconsin to tout the new policy, which is widely seen as popular in industrial Midwestern states that are expected to play a major role in deciding the presidential election next month. Replacing lead pipes nationwide could also create jobs. Vice President Kamala Harris has also called for replacing lead pipes, an issue especially important for underserved communities, a priority.

“The President understands the urgency of getting lead out of communities because he and Vice President Harris know that ensuring everyone has access to clean water is a moral imperative,” Michael S. Regan, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said.

Lead poisoning can cause irreversible damage to the nervous system and the brain and poses a particular risk to infants and children, impairing their cognitive development and causing behavioral disorders. Service lines, the lead pipes that bring water into homes, are thought to be a major source of lead exposure for children. (Lead-based paint, sometimes found in older buildings, is another.)

The dangers of lead contamination came into sharp relief in Flint, Mich., a decade ago. A change in the water source in 2014, coupled with inadequate treatment and testing, caused high amounts of lead and Legionella bacteria to leach into the tap water of about 100,000 residents.

The new rule imposes the strictest limits on lead in drinking water since federal standards were first set decades ago. Utilities will be required to take stock of their lead pipes and replace them over the next 10 years. The measure replaces less stringent regulations, adopted during the Trump administration, on lead in drinking water.

The improvements will protect millions of Americans from exposure to lead, the E.P.A. said. The rule will also protect up to 900,000 infants from having low birth weight, and will prevent up to 200,000 I.Q. points lost among children, among other health benefits, the E.P.A. estimated.

“This rule is historic. It’s a game changer, said Mona Hanna, associate dean at Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine and a local pediatrician whose research helped to expose the Flint water crisis. “We’ve been living too long on our great-grandparents’ infrastructure,” she said.

Favored for their malleability and durability, lead pipes were installed on a major scale from the late 1800s, particularly in large cities. When the plumbing corrodes, however, lead can leach into drinking water. The federal government banned lead pipe in new plumbing in 1986. But tens of millions of Americans are still thought to drink water from old systems with lead-contamination issues.

Digging up and replacing the nation’s lead pipes to address that health risk will be a colossal undertaking. The E.P.A. estimates that water utilities must replace about nine million lead pipes at a total cost of $20 billion to $30 billion over a decade. While much of that cost will fall to the utilities, and most likely their ratepayers, $15 billion in federal funding is also available under the 2021 infrastructure law to help pay for the effort. On Tuesday, the E.P.A. announced $2.6 billion in new funding to support lead pipe replacement.

The rule was expected to face opposition from some utilities, which have cited rising costs, supply-chain problems, labor shortages and incomplete or missing building records as obstacles to the rapid replacement of lead pipes. Earlier this year, the group joined chemical companies to sue over rules requiring the cleanup of so-called forever chemicals linked to cancer and other health risks.

The new rule, which updates regulations under the 1991 Safe Drinking Water Act, also lowers the allowable amount of lead in the meantime to 10 parts per billion, from the current 15 parts per billion. If the water supply repeatedly exceeds the new threshold, utilities must make water filters available. Some public-health advocates had called for a lower standard of between zero and five parts per billion.

The rule also doesn’t require utilities to pay for the portion of lead lines that are on private property, including within a home. E.P.A. officials have expressed concerns that such a requirement would go beyond the agency’s legal authority.

However, environmental groups say that such an omission would shift the onus onto lower-income homeowners who may be unable to afford lead-pipe removal. Research has shown that Black, Latino and low-income neighborhoods are disproportionately more likely to receive contaminated water through a lead pipe.

People “who for many decades have already been disadvantaged, who live in communities that have lead pipes, lead paint, dirty air, and have suffered extra burdens” could get left behind, said Erik D. Olson, senior strategic director for health at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Nevertheless, he added, the policy was a big step forward.

The new rule allows some utilities with a particularly large number of lead service lines to go beyond the 10-year deadline. Under a draft version of the rule, Chicago, which has the most lead pipes in the nation, would have gotten as long as 50 years to remove them all. The final rule promises to shorten that timeline significantly.

Lead scares continue to pop up across the country. Earlier this year, testing in Syracuse, N.Y., found lead levels in the drinking water of some homes at many times the federal limit. Syracuse now plans to use state and federal financing to start replacing the approximately 14,000 service lines in the city, which expects to get to 2,400 of them next year.

“We’d been told for decades that our water was safe,” said Oceanna Fair, a retired nurse who found out a month ago that her home in Syracuse is serviced by lead pipes. Concerned for her grandchildren, whom she cares for during the day, she is now getting filters installed in her home.

She also looked into the cost of getting her pipes replaced: $10,000. “Most people can’t afford that,” she said. “We need help to ensure everyone gets safe and clean water.”

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