Milwaukee, WI – President Biden will announce $2.6 billion in funding to replace all lead pipes in the United States as part of a new EPA rule which requires lead pipes to be identified and replaced within ten years using new funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act.
The EPA estimates that nine million homes in the US have lead pipes.
The city of Milwaukee, where Mr. Biden will make the announcement, has 65,000 lead pipes, which the city estimates will cost $700 million to remove.
“The science has been clear for decades. There is no safe level of lead in drinking water,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan told reporters Monday.
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The final rule requires improved lead testing requirements and requires a complete inventory of lead water pipes. The $2.6 billion is the Biden administration’s latest payout for lead pipes in the $50 billion infrastructure bill of 2021 for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure.
Legal issues may arise, but a senior government official believes the ruling is within the EPA’s “statutory authority” and is on a solid legal basis.
Mr. Biden’s visit comes amid a series of stops in the swing state of Wisconsin by both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. Mr. Biden’s last visit was to Westly, Wisconsin, nearly a month ago for an announcement about bringing electricity to rural America.
Mr. Biden’s political focus on Wisconsin reflects hopes that Democrats can hold on to the state they flipped by a narrow margin in 2020 after losing it in 2016.
Wisconsin is one of six states where lead levels in children’s blood are more than double the national rate, according to a 2021 study published in JAMA Pediatrics.
Even low lead levels can cause minor intellectual disabilities, depending on the child, according to Dr. Adam Blumenberg, emergency medicine physician and toxicology expert at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
“If there’s a certain amount of lead of concern in the child, you really want to find out where it’s coming from and eliminate the source of exposure. That’s always going to be one of the most important things to do,” Blumenberg says.
Deanna Branch, a mother and lead poisoning awareness activist from Milwaukee, told CBS News that she is finally seeing Bipartisan Infrastructure Act money used to remove lead pipes in her community.
Branch’s son Aidan suffered from lead poisoning while they lived in a house with lead in the paint, windows, pipes and soil. Her son’s lead levels were so high that they had to leave home and move into a homeless shelter for almost three months while they looked for safe housing. Branch said the experience was terrifying for her son and left him with health problems he will face for the rest of his life.
The Branch now lives in a lead-paint-free home, but they still have lead pipes.
“When I first started advocating there was a 50-year plan that turned into a 40-year plan, now there’s a nine-year plan to remove all lead pipes in Milwaukee, Branch tells CBS News. “I would have to be alive to the lead pipes are being removed from Milwaukee and that gives me hope for other places too.”
There is more the Milwaukee community needs to live in a lead-free, safe environment: more housing and more clinics.
Branch says there isn’t enough safe housing available in the community. Her old home, where her son was lead poisoned, was rented out just a few years ago, according to Branch. As for the Next Door Pediatrics Clinic, where her son was first tested for lead positioning, it has since closed, leaving a health care gap in the community. Branch credits the clinic’s work with her youngest daughter being lead-free.
There is a sense of shame among parents whose children have suffered lead poisoning, but Branch wants to take the shame away from asking for help.
“I want them to know it’s not your fault,” Branch says. “We are not getting justice, and it is a human right to have clean drinking water.”
