EPA announces $32.8M for Colorado lead pipe replacement to ensure safe drinking water

EPA announces $32.8M for Colorado lead pipe replacement to ensure safe drinking water

Latest round of funding advances President Biden's commitment to replace every lead pipe in the nation

May 2, 2024

Lead can cause a range of serious health impacts, including irreversible harm to brain development in children. To protect children and families, President Biden has committed to replacing every lead pipe in the country. Today's announcement, funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and available through EPA's successful Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF), takes another major step to advance this work and the Administration's commitment to environmental justice. This funding builds on the Administration's Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan and EPA's Get the Lead Out Initiative.

"EPA is dedicated to protecting the health of all Coloradans by ensuring the water flowing into their taps is safe and reliable," said EPA Regional Administrator KC Becker. "Everyone deserves clean drinking water, and this lead service line replacement funding underscores our commitment to making that happen, especially in disadvantaged communities."

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. The total funding announced through this program to date is expected to replace up to 1.7 million lead pipes nationwide, securing clean drinking water for countless families.

"No parent in America should have to worry about the water their kids drink," said Senator Michael Bennet. "This investment from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is an important step forward to help communities across Colorado replace harmful lead pipes without placing additional financial burdens on homeowners and small businesses. Communities in every corner of the country should have access to clean drinking water."

"Every Coloradan deserves access to safe drinking water," said Senator John Hickenlooper. "These Bipartisan Infrastructure Law investments will help replace lead pipes and deliver cleaner water to communities across Colorado!"

"Neighborhoods throughout Denver have been impacted by lead pipes and unsafe drinking water," said Congresswoman Diana DeGette. "I voted for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to send funding to communities like those in Colorado's First District to replace lead pipes and improve the health of my constituents. Today's announcement is a victory for public health, and I am glad to have champions in the White House like President Biden and Vice President Harris who are fighting to support disadvantaged communities in Denver and across our country."

"This historic step marks the start of the end of toxic lead pipes that harm the health of our children and families," said Assistant House Minority Leader Joe Neguse. "I applaud the work and commitment of the Biden-Harris Administration to ensure Coloradans and the American people have access to safe, clean drinking water."

The 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 (LSLR) 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 services lines across the country, based on data collected from the updated 7th Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment. The funding announced today is 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.

The Lead Service Line-specific formula used to allot these funds allows states to receive financial assistance commensurate with their need as soon as possible, furthering public health protection nationwide. The formula and allotments are based on need, meaning that states with more projected lead service lines receive proportionally more funding.

Alongside the funding announced today, EPA is releasing a new memorandum that clarifies how states can use this and other funding to most effectively reduce exposure to lead in drinking water. EPA has also 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 the identification of potential lead service lines in their homes.

To view more stories about how the unpreceded investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law are transforming communities across the country, visit EPA's Investing in America's Water Infrastructure Story Map. To read more about some additional projects that are underway, see EPA's recently released Quarterly Report on Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Funded Clean Water and Drinking Water SRF projects and explore the State Revolving Funds Public Portal.

Today's allotments are based on EPA's updated 7th Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment (DWINSA). To date, this is the best available data collected and assessed on service line materials in the U.S. Later this summer, EPA will release an addendum to the 7th DWINSA Report to Congress which will include the updated lead service line projections. EPA anticipates initiating data collection, including information on lead service lines, for the 8th DWINSA in 2025.

For more information, including state-by-state allotment of 2024 funding and a breakdown of EPA's lead Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, please visit EPA's Drinking Water website.