The Biden administration has released a plan to accelerate the removal of lead water pipes and lead paint from U.S. homes. As a geochemist and environmental health researcher who has studied the heartbreaking effects of lead poisoning in children for decades, I am happy to see a lot of attention being paid to this silent killer, which disproportionately affects poor communities of color.

Childhood lead poisoning has declined significantly in the U.S. over the past 50 years. That’s largely due to the elimination of leaded gasoline in the 1980s and the banning of most lead-based paints.

But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that up to 10 million households and 400,000 schools and child care centers have service lines or other fixtures that contain lead. These pipes are ticking time bombs that can leach toxic lead into drinking water if they corrode. As long as they remain in service, children and families are vulnerable.

The same is true of lead paint, which is still present in many homes built before consumer use of lead paint was banned in 1978. Because it tastes sweet, children sometimes chew on paint chips or painted wood.

The Biden administration will spend $15 billion from the recently enacted infrastructure bill to replace lead service lines, faucets and fixtures over the next five years and is seeking additional money in the pending Build Back Better Act to reduce lead hazards in public housing and low-income communities. I see this as a key priority, since Black children and children living in poverty have average blood lead levels that are 13 percent higher than the national average.

Lead poisoning does permanent damage

Lead poisoning is a major public health problem because lead has permanent impacts on the brain, particularly in children. Young brains are still actively forming the amazing network of neurons that comprise their hardware.

Neurons are designed to use calcium, the most abundant mineral in the human body, as a transmitter to rapidly pass signals. Lead molecules look a lot like calcium molecules, so if they are present in a child’s body, they can penetrate the brain, impair neuron development and cause permanent neural damage.

Children with lead poisoning have lower IQs, poor memory recall, high rates of attention deficit disorder and low impulse control. They tend to perform poorly at school, which reduces their earning potential as adults. They also face increased risk of kidney disease, stroke and hypertension as they age. Research has found strong connections between lead poisoning and incarceration for violent crimes.

Today researchers estimate that about 500,000 U.S. children still have elevated blood lead levels. Health experts widely agree that there is no known “safe” blood lead concentration.

Where are the lead pipes?

The Biden administration’s plan calls for replacing 100 percent of lead service lines across the nation – a goal that the EPA aims to write into regulations by 2024. Step 1 is finding the pipes.

Most U.S. cities have countless miles of lead service lines buried beneath streets and sidewalks and feeding into people’s homes. Utilities don’t know where many of these aging lines are and don’t have enough data to map them.

Replacing them will require significant analysis, modeling, data and some guesswork.

Old service lines have caused lead poisoning outbreaks in such places as Washington, D.C.; Flint, Michigan; and Newark, New Jersey. The chemistry is a bit different in each case.

Lead service lines typically develop a protective “plaque” of minerals on their inside walls after a short time, which effectively separates the toxic lead pipe from the water flowing through it. This coating, which is called scale, remains stable if the chemistry of the water coursing through it doesn’t change. But if that chemistry is altered, disaster can ensue.
In 2002, Washington, D.C., shifted from chlorine to chloramine for treating its water supply. Chloramine is a more modern disinfectant that does not form dangerous reactive chlorinated byproducts as chlorine can.

This rapidly corroded the protective plaque lining the city’s pipes, flushing highly absorbable lead into homes. Tens of thousands of children were exposed over two years before the problem was adequately identified and fixed.

In Flint, state-appointed managers decided to save money during a fiscal crisis in 2014 by switching from Detroit water to water from the Flint River. But regulators did not require enough chemical analysis to determine what additives should be used to maintain the pipe plaque. And they skipped the typical step of adding phosphate, which binds chemically with lead and prevents it from leaching out of pipes, in order to save about $100 per day.

Corrosion chemistry is well controlled in many U.S. cities, but it is not a perfect science. And utilities don’t always have detection systems that adequately alert water suppliers to dangers at the tap. That’s why removing lead pipes is the only sure way to avoid the threat of more water crises.

Cities will need to innovate

Although $15 billion is a big investment, experts agree that it’s not enough to replace all lead pipes nationwide. For example, the estimated cost of replacing all of Flint’s lead service lines is about $50 million – and there are thousands of U.S. cities to fix.

My own city, Indianapolis, has a population of about 850,000 – about 10 times larger than Flint – and officials have only a rough idea of where to find the lead service lines. There are ways to statistically model the likelihood that a given portion of the water system has lead service lines, using information such as water main sizes, locations and construction dates, but they are imperfect.

Cities will need to get creative to make whatever funds they get go as far as possible. As one example, I am working with colleagues to develop a citizen science project that will provide thousands of tests for lead at taps around Indianapolis. This effort, a partnership with the University of Notre Dame funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, may augment modeling with real data on levels of lead in homes, and will increase public awareness of this issue.

In spite of these difficulties, I believe more urgency on this issue is long overdue. Every lead pipe that’s replaced will pay off in higher lifetime earnings and lower rates of illness for families that gain access to safer tap water.

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Oregon will soon receive more than $92 million in federal money from the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to strengthen drinking and wastewater systems and replace lead service lines and pipes. This funding is the first round of a five-year investment authorized by the new law.

“Access to safe and reliable drinking water is critical for our communities to stay healthy and thrive,” said Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01) in a news release. “Lead and contaminants pose serious health threats to Oregonians. As a mom and a policymaker, I’m especially concerned about making sure our kids can drink clean water at home and at school. This federal investment of $92 million will provide clean safe drinking water to hundreds of thousands of Oregonians. That’s what it means to build back better.”

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law included $50 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency to improve water systems, which is the largest single investment in water in our nation’s history.  Over the next five years, $15 billion nationally will go toward replacing lead pipes and service lines across the country, with a special focus on advancing equity and justice for under-resourced communities.

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By SUMAN NAISHADHAM
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Included in the bipartisan infrastructure deal reached with President Joe Biden last week is a plan to eliminate the country’s remaining lead pipes and service lines, which for decades have posed a risk for contaminated water in millions of homes and schools.

Lead can enter drinking water when water utility pipes or the service lines that connect to homes corrode. It is considered harmful at any level, and children are particularly vulnerable because it can slow growth, cause anemia and result in learning and behavior problems.

Federal regulations over the years have banned the use of lead in plumbing systems, but some pipes and service lines that were built before the rules were enacted have yet to be replaced. The White House says lead pipes continue to serve an estimated 400,000 schools and child care centers and 6 million to 10 million homes.

A look at how lead pipes are being addressed.

WHO CHECKS FOR LEAD IN MY WATER?

The Environmental Protection Agency requires public water systems to conduct annual water quality tests and alert residents if lead contamination is found.

If lead is detected, water utilities have to replace pipes within 15 years and provide filters to households during the process.

But then there are the service lines that connect the utilities’ pipes to homes, and are often on private property. Checking for lead in those lines is generally the homeowner’s responsibility, though some cities and states provide funding to help replace them. Residents can hire a certified plumber to test service lines.

Some homes also have privately supplied water, such as from wells. In those cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says residents should test water annually and contact their local public health departments if lead is detected.

Local health departments or nearby water utilities that use ground water also keep information about local contaminants.

WHAT HAS BEEN DONE SO FAR ABOUT LEAD PIPES?

States and cities have worked for years to replace pipes and service lines, but efforts have lagged in many places in part because of the steep price tag.

The EPA estimates the average cost of replacing a lead service line ranges from $1,200 to $12,300 for a homeowner, and has made grants available for local governments to disperse.

Chicago, Denver and Newark, New Jersey are among the cities that have provided individual homeowners with full or partial financial aid in recent years to get rid of lead service lines.

WHAT ABOUT THE REMAINING PIPES?

To lessen the risk posed by lead pipes, cities treat drinking water with additives that help prevent their corrosion. Experts say such measures have helped reduce overall levels of exposure, but do not eliminate risk.

WHO IS AFFECTED BY LEAD PIPES?

Black and Hispanic Americans have long been at disproportionate risk of lead exposure in drinking water and lead-based paint, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, environmental advocates and medical researchers.

Children who live in housing built before 1978 or in households with incomes at or below the federal poverty line are thought to face the greatest risk of exposure.

The lead-tainted water crisis of Flint, Michigan, disproportionately hurt Black residents, who make up a majority of the city. When the city switched its water source in 2014 to the Flint River, state regulators advised local officials not to treat the river water with anti-corrosion chemicals. That resulted in river water scraping lead off the city’s aging pipes and plumbing fixtures.

A report later issued by the Michigan Civil Rights Commission found “systemic racism” at the core of problems that caused the water crisis.

WHAT IS CHANGING?

Under the Trump administration, the EPA modified a regulation to require water utilities to test fountains and faucets for lead at schools and child care centers. The Biden administration suspended and is reviewing that rule, which also would have nearly doubled the time utilities have to replace pipes when lead is found in them.

Some experts say lead tests for water pipes are unreliable, since results can vary based on factors such as how recently the pipe was flushed or whether construction shook lead particles loose at the time of testing.

Those variables can make concentrations of lead in water “fluctuate quite a bit,” said John Rumpler, clean water program director for Environment America, which advocates for environmental protections.

WOULD THE PROPOSED FUNDING GET RID OF ALL LEAD PIPES?

Biden’s proposed plan had set aside money for mapping out the extent of lead piping in the U.S., which remains difficult to assess in many older cities and towns. But experts say the $45 billion included in the proposal is a realistic ballpark figure for eliminating what’s estimated to remain.

Money for replacing pipes would be distributed through water programs and grants administered by the EPA to state and local governments and public water systems.

WOULD THIS END THE RISK OF LEAD EXPOSURE?

No. Water isn’t the only potential source of lead. Other sources include lead-based paint, which can be found in homes built before 1978 and soil contaminated from industrial sources including leaded gasoline.

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