States Say They Lack ‘Road Map’ to Spend Feds’ Lead Pipe Funds

Many states say they haven’t yet made specific plans to distribute any of the new infrastructure law’s $15 billion in federal lead pipe replacement funding because there are too many unanswered questions about where and how to spend the money.

The timeline for lead pipe replacement is unclear even as the White House on Thursday announced a long-term plan to remove all the country’s nearly 10 million lead pipes over the next decade or so.

Getting lead-pipe replacement funding to local water systems is going to be time-consuming because the Environmental Protection Agency and local governments have yet to locate all the pipes and learn the necessary federal requirements for distributing the money to communities.

“We don’t have a road map of where that lead contamination exists now. There has never been a registry or disclosure requirement,” said Brent Sailhamer, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources also is “not at a point just yet where we can say exactly how the federal infrastructure funds will be used or how today’s announcement will impact lead service line replacement,” its communications director, Sarah Hoye, said.

The White House’s plan calls for the EPA to instruct states on how to disburse the funding in the first quarter of 2022. With up to 10 million lead service lines connected to homes nationwide, replacing those pipes is a top priority for the Biden administration, which has said it wants to replace all lead pipes nationwide within a decade.

Local Responsibility

But the onus is on local water systems to find the lead pipes, design projects to replace them, and then apply for federal funding through the state, Sailhamer said.

“It’s a completely voluntary process,” he said, adding that there is no mandate from state government to ensure local water systems are applying for federal lead pipe replacement aid.

Most of the infrastructure money earmarked for lead service line replacement will be distributed through the EPA’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, which puts the onus on each state to dole out the money locally.

The fund helps states and local water systems pay for infrastructure upgrades of all kinds, but the law provides $15 billion through the fund specifically for lead pipe replacement.

The White House’s plan also calls for an additional $11.7 billion to be available for lead service lines through the revolving fund, but the process of distributing the total funds available for 2022 is expected to continue through the spring.

“States are going to have to gear up their own programs,” said Steve Via, director of federal relations at the American Water Works Association.

The EPA will distribute funding to states as quickly as possible after issuing guidance to them early next year, agency spokesman Robert Daguillard said.

Awaiting Guidance

Michigan, which is has one of the highest concentrations of lead service lines in the country, can’t replace it’s pipes using federal funding until the EPA issues guidance and until the state legislature approves the money.

“Once both steps have been taken, we will work to quickly provide information to communities on how to apply for the funds,” said Scott Dean, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.

California’s Water Resources Control Board has yet to provide direction on how EPA lead service line replacement funds will be spent, said Christopher Stevens, assistant deputy director of the board’s Division of Financial Assistance.

States with aging water infrastructure widespread may face challenges replacing pipes within 10 years, but states with younger infrastructure such as California will be less daunted by that goal.

“We don’t think it should be any problem at all,” Darrin Polhemus, deputy director of the California Division of Drinking Water, said in an email. “We have a much smaller inventory of lead lines than the mid-West and East Coast states.”

Lead, Copper Rule Complications

The EPA’s announcement that it will allow the Trump-era Lead and Copper Rule to take effect Thursday while the Biden administration writes a new rule may also slow down lead pipe replacement.

The Trump-era rule reduced the number of lead pipes states are required to replace annually.

California public water systems have already completed a lead-pipe surveys, but the new rule requires an additional survey for privately-owned service lines, said Blair Robertson, spokeswoman for the California State Water Resources Control Board.

Though the EPA uses a 2016 American Water Works Association estimate co-authored by Via for the number of lead service lines in the U.S., the actual number isn’t known.

“Until we’ve actually gone through the national exercise of lead service line inventory under the revised Lead and Copper Rule, we won’t have that national community-specific estimate,” Via said.

— With assistance from Courtney Rozen and Alex Ebert.