While in Milwaukee, Biden announced a finalized EPA rule that requires water systems nationwide to replace lead service lines within a decade.
President Joe Biden announced a $2.6 billion investment to replace lead pipes while in Wisconsin on Oct. 8, according to senior administration officials.
The funding was allocated under the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which set aside $15 billion over five years for replacing lead pipes. The Clean Water State Revolving Fund under the bill gives an additional $11.7 billion that can be used toward this effort.
While in Milwaukee, Biden also announced a finalized Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule that requires water systems nationwide to replace lead service lines within a decade. The new standard for the action level—or how much water in a water system is contaminated—of pipes will be 10 parts per billion. The current standard is 15 parts per billion.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), who is running for reelection, was not with the president as he made the announcement.
“Senator Baldwin had a previously scheduled event at a family farm in Eau Claire to receive the American Farm Bureau Federation’s ‘Friend of Farm Bureau’ award recognizing her leadership fighting for America’s hardworking farmers, growers, and producers,” the senator’s communications director, Eli Rosen, told The Epoch Times.
One senior administration official said Baldwin is “an amazing partner in this administration and leading the charge in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.”
Under the EPA rule, at least 49 percent of the funding must be provided to disadvantaged communities as funds that do not need to be repaid. The rule updates what is called the Lead and Copper Rule, which was first enacted in 1991.
“The EPA’s new lead rule will begin to reverse the massive public health disaster of lead-contaminated tap water that has affected generations of our children. Every person has a right to safe and affordable drinking water, no matter their race, income, or zip code,” said Manish Bapna, president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council, in a statement obtained by The Epoch Times.
Additionally, the EPA announced a $35 million grant program to address lead in drinking water.
The administration has already allocated approximately $30 million from the signature legislation for Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to replace all 3,400 of its lead pipes within a decade.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan warned about the effects of humans drinking water from lead pipes as “there is no safe level.”
“In children, lead can severely harm mental and physical development, slow down learning and irreversibly damage the brain. In adults, lead can cause increased blood pressure, heart disease, decreased kidney function, and cancer,” Regan told reporters on a call.
In May, the administration announced $3 billion to replace toxic lead pipes in Wilmington, North Carolina.
As many as 9 million homes, many of which are in underprivileged neighborhoods, receive water coming from lead pipes, according to the EPA.
“This is a matter of public health, a matter of environmental justice, a matter of basic human rights, and it is finally being met with the urgency it demands,” Regan said.
According to another senior administration official, 99 percent of cities with lead pipes will have them replaced within 10 years.
Finally, the EPA said that the new rule meets legal muster and will be beneficial.
“If you look at protecting up to 900,000 infants from being born with low birth weight for the reducing of 1500 cases of premature death from heart disease, the cost benefits are at a 13 to one ratio,” the official said.
“This is an opportunity to reduce lead exposure to millions of families all across the country, and we believe we’ve done it in a very strategic way, a legally sound way, supported by the science and the health benefits of this rule are undeniable.”