Biden in Milwaukee announces 10-year timeline for lead pipe replacement • Wisconsin Examiner

All U.S. municipalities will be required to remove lead from their water lines over a 10-year period under new federal regulations the Environmental Protection Agency released Tuesday.

To officially announce the new rule, President Joe Biden traveled to Milwaukee, where he spoke about the role that his administration’s bipartisan infrastructure law played in advancing the replacement of lead pipes in Wisconsin’s largest city as well as across the country.

“For too long, local communities have known how important it was to deal with this problem,” Biden said. “It hadn’t been given the national priority it demanded, though. I’m here today to tell you that I’m finally insisting that it gets prioritized, and I’m insisting to get it done well.”

The U.S. has more than 9 million water service lines still using lead pipes, according to the EPA, including 340,000 lines in Wisconsin.

The infrastructure law includes $15 billion for lead pipe replacement. It also contains incentives to use union labor and to create apprenticeship programs to train more workers.

Underscoring that, Biden was introduced by Alonzo Romo, a Laborers Union member who has been among the workers replacing lead lines in Milwaukee.

“I personally helped move 35 lead laterals, and while I have a lot more to do, I know we’re making great pace,” Romo said. “This is hard work, but it is so rewarding. Not only am I getting paid great wages and great benefits, but I know that when I am removing a lead service lateral, I’m helping a family in our community have access to clean drinking water.”

Nationally about 367,000 lead lines have been replaced — and in the process, Biden said, “providing what’s good for our health and for our environment is also good for our economy and it’s good for jobs.”

The rule released Tuesday is an update of the federal lead and copper rule for drinking water. The 10-year timeline it requires for all communities to replace their lead service lines starts in 2027.

“This is also about fairness,” Biden said. “Nationally, I’m directing nearly half of this funding to go to disadvantaged communities that have borne the brunt of lead pipe poisoning for damn too long.”

A disproportionate number of people living where lead pipes remain in use are people of color, Biden said. “We have an obligation to make things right.”

Advocates praised the measure as a boon to public health.

“As we confront the legacy of lead contamination, this rule strengthens accountability and prioritizes the safety of our most vulnerable communities,” said Sara Welling, director of the water and agriculture program at Clean Wisconsin. “Today’s announcement sets us on a course for a healthier future, empowering local governments and water utilities to address this persistent threat with greater urgency and transparency.”