The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced $28,650,000 from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to help Alaska identify and replace lead service lines, preventing lead exposure in drinking water.
Lead can cause a range of serious health impacts, including irreversible harm to brain development in children. President Biden has committed to replacing every lead pipe in the country to protect children and families
The announcement, funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and available through EPA’s successful Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, takes another major step to advance this work and environmental justice and bolsters the Administration’s Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan and EPA’s Get the Lead Out Initiative.
Working collaboratively, EPA and the State Revolving Funds are advancing the President’s Justice40 Initiative to ensure that 40% of overall benefits from certain federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.
Lead exposure disproportionately affects communities of color and low-income families. To date, the total funding announced through this program is expected to replace up to 1.7 million lead pipes nationwide, securing clean drinking water for countless families.
“Lead in drinking water is a public health crisis that must be addressed so people can trust what comes out of their tap,” said EPA Region 10 Administrator Casey Sixkiller. “This funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides Alaska a tremendous opportunity to make progress on eliminating a significant source of lead in drinking water. Permanently removing aging – and all together outdated – water infrastructure is a crucial step toward strengthening public health.”
President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law invests a historic $15 billion to identify and replace lead service lines. The law mandates that 49% of funds provided through the DWSRF General Supplemental Funding and DWSRF Lead Service Line Replacement Funding must be provided as grants and forgivable loans to disadvantaged communities, a crucial investment for communities that have been underinvested in for too long.
EPA projects a national total of 9 million lead service lines across the country, based on data collected from the updated 7th Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment. The funding will be provided specifically for lead service line identification and replacement and will help every state and territory fund projects to remove lead pipes and reduce exposure to lead from drinking water. This Lead Service Line-specific formula allows states to receive financial assistance commensurate with their need as soon as possible, furthering public health protection nationwide.
To ensure that funding is used for lead service line-related activities, LSLR allotments are based on need — meaning that states with more projected lead service lines receive proportionally more.
Alongside the funding announced today, EPA is releasing a memorandum clarifying how states can use this and other funding to reduce exposure to lead in drinking water most effectively. Additionally, the EPA has developed new outreach documents to help water systems educate their customers on drinking water issues, health impacts of lead exposure, service line ownership, and how customers can support identifying potential lead service lines in their homes.
