The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it will spend $3 billion to help states and territories identify and replace lead water pipes.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it will spend $3 billion to help states and territories identify and replace lead water pipes.

“The science is clear, there is no safe level of lead exposure, and the primary source of harmful exposure in drinking water is through lead pipes,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said, announcing the funding Thursday in an agency news release.

Lead poses serious health risks and can cause irreversible brain damage in children.

The funding announced Thursday is part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which President Joe Biden signed into law in 2021. It sets aside $15 billion overall to identify and replace lead pipes.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    519·
    7 months ago

    That sounds like a lot. It isn’t. It’s a drop in the bucket. So is the $15 billion.

    After conducting a survey of these lead pipes in the United States, NRDC estimates that there is a range of 9.7 million to 12.8 million pipes that are, or may be, lead, spread across all 50 states, including those that claim to have none.

    https://www.nrdc.org/resources/lead-pipes-are-widespread-and-used-every-state

    No way is $15 billion going to be enough to dig up and replace that much lead piping.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        238·
        7 months ago

        I’m not trying to let the perfect be the enemy of the good, but this is being sold as a cure when it’s a band-aid.

        • stembolts
          14·
          7 months ago

          True, wish they’d add, “This will fix approximately x% of pipes across the nation!”

          But I know why they can’t do that, “politics”, because there is a considerable amount of people who would say, 5/10/15%! That’s awful, I’m voting for the guy who founded the lead pacifier company! He’s tall!

          But… when you consider :
          1, We consider cave people to be stupid
          2, Not enough time has passed for the brain to evolve since we were cave people

          It makes a bit more sense, we truly are standing on the shoulders of giants. Or in other words, humans are real ducking dumb. We’re all cave people.

          • Buckshot
            4·
            7 months ago

            Cave people didn’t have lead poisoning either

        • ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works
          3·
          7 months ago

          The main thing it is not a federal task force or anything, so it will be funding given to state and local governments that have already failed or even outright refused to replace lead pipes.

          Like for example: DeSantis will replace pipes in certain areas but will undoubtedly only identify them in others.

    • bluGill@kbin.social
      10·
      7 months ago

      They don’t have to be dug up. The first step is chemistry - Flint was fine with lead pipes until they switch water sources to something with a different composition (ph I think - but there are other factors and we should get expert chemists to speak here not laypeople like us). Anywhere that lead pipes exist we need monitoring to ensure that the water doesn’t dissolve lead, once we have that in place the pipes don’t leach much lead and we can do a slower replacement when the pipes need to be replaced anyway.

      We also have technology to put a plastic liner in existing pipes for much less than digging the pipes up. It doesn’t work for all situations, but when it does is a lot cheaper and should be investigated for any pipe that is expected to last a long time.

      • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
        3·
        7 months ago

        I hate this.

        • “This shit is terrible. Fixing it is going to cost an astronomical amount but it’s just got to get done.”
        • “Woah woah woah. Why don’t we investigate a range of potential options that will mitigate the harm caused by the problem.”

        You already know just from the tone that fuck all is going to happen.

        The answer is… do both. Fix the problem while finding ways to mitigate costs while ensuring the problem gets fixed.

      • Pulptastic@midwest.socialEnglish
        2·
        7 months ago

        Even with that there is still a nonzero amount of lead in the water. Source: my city that does exactly that and the test results they publish.

    • catch22
      8·
      7 months ago

      https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-would-it-cost-to-replace-all-the-nations-lead-water-pipes/

      From the article:

      How much would it cost to get lead out of the U.S.’s drinking water? A back-of-the-envelope calculation based on EPA’s estimate of average replacement cost per line ($4,700) and assumption of 6 to 10 million lead service lines across the country suggests the cost could range from $28 billion to $47 billion, putting Biden’s originally-proposed $45 billion near the top of that range—but the $15 billion legislated well below it.

      Seems like just a drop in the bucket! HAHAHA, ha… ehh…

    • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
      7·
      7 months ago

      I know you’re saying the $15b is a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of fixing the problem, but it’s also a drop in the bucket compared to tax revenues right?

      Like how much is bezos worth, can’t you guys just guillotine him and use the money to fix the pipes?

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        3·
        7 months ago

        I’d rather just tax him a whole lot than continue our proud tradition of state murder. We already do it to possibly innocent death row prisoners.