Over a decade after Flint, the effort to remove lead pipes has moved from voluntary action to a national deadline.
Roya Alkafaji of the Environmental Defense Fund traces a series of milestones that have transformed lead service line replacement across the U.S.:
➡️ 2016: The Lead Service Line Replacement Collaborative formed and developed a roadmap to help communities begin voluntary replacements.
➡️ 2021: EPA revised the Lead and Copper Rule, requiring water systems to develop inventories identifying the materials in their service lines. Those initial inventories were due in 2024.
➡️ 2021: The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law dedicated $15 billion specifically to lead service line replacement, plus $11.7 billion for the broader Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.
➡️ 2024: EPA finalized new regulations requiring most water systems to replace their lead service lines within 10 years, putting most communities on a path toward a 2037 deadline.
The work on the ground has accelerated, too. Alkafaji says the number of publicly tracked replacement programs has grown from just 33 in 2017 to at least 270 today, with at least 20 communities completing their programs.
The next challenge is turning a decade of policy, funding, and planning into millions more lead pipes removed from the ground.
Learn more in the episode at https://youtu.be/9OHLrLHwzeY?si=SHtRoAYCPI5tsUha
waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet exploring solutions for water sustainability.
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