'Real results': VP Kamala Harris visits Pittsburgh to celebrate clean water efforts

Vice President Kamala Harris visited Pittsburgh Tuesday to celebrate the region’s success in replacing over 18,000 lead water lines and improving drinking water infrastructure.

The trip came 18 months after she came to the city advocating for new funding to replace tens of thousands of lead pipes.

“When President Biden and I talk about why we do what we do, it is about real results for real people,” Harris told about 100 supporters at the Kingsley Association in Pittsburgh’s Larimer neighborhood. “For basic things, like people having access to clean water.”

Harris spoke for about 10 minutes. She was joined by joined by Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato, Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, and U.S. Reps. Chris Deluzio, D-Aspinwall, and Summer Lee, D-Swissvale.

The vice president celebrated the recent award of over $32 million to Pittsburgh, part of an allotment of roughly $5.8 billion across the nation to improve drinking water infrastructure. That money, in turn, is coming from about $50 billion earmarked for water infrastructure, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan, who was also in attendance.

All of the funding ultimately derives from the President Joe Biden’s signature $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law passed in late 2022.

Harris said no American, regardless of income, should have to drink from lead pipes. She praised Pittsburgh’s success in replacing water service lines.

“It is an infrastructure matter, but it is also a public health matter,” she said to applause from the crowd.

Harris’s trip comes on the heels of several other Pittsburgh visits lately from Biden’s cabinet, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Pennsylvania is a key swing state and Biden’s approval rating has been lagging here. Recent polls have shown a tight contest between Biden and former President Donald Trump in a likely November match up.

Harris said the city has replaced more than 3,000 lead service lines since she last visited Pittsburgh in July 2022.

Pittsburgh became a regional poster child for lead pipe problems starting in 2014, when the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority began experiencing elevated contamination levels in drinking water, highlighting the decades-long lack of investment in the city’s water infrastructure.

By 2016, readings showed lead levels above 15 parts per billion, the federal level requiring action be taken to mitigate the problem.

The authority started replacing lines in 2016 and has since replaced over 10,778 public and 7,578 private lead water lines.

Earlier this month, the authority said it was halfway towards its goal of replacing all lines within its coverage area, which includes most of the city of Pittsburgh, and the entire borough of Millvale.

Recent testing showed lead levels of 3.58 parts per billion, a historic low.

Innamorato said public officials ignored the problem for decades, and the deferred maintenance piled up. She thanked Harris and the Biden administration for their work in funneling funding to Pittsburgh and Allegheny County.

“We finally got action,” she said.

The authority estimates the new $32 million in funding will cover the replacement of an additional 1,375 public and 1,260 private lead service lines within Millvale and 10 Pittsburgh neighborhoods.

The $5.8 billion national allotment is to replace lead pipes, improve storm water infrastructure and remove contaminants. Of that, Pennsylvania will get $200 million.

To date, Pennsylvania has received $659 million for clean water infrastructure, according to Lee’s office.

Lee was also thankful for the federal funding and action taken to replace lead pipes, but emphasized that there were still plenty of communities in the region that need to see upgraded water infrastructure.

“We need to finish the job,” she said. “Clean drinking water is a human right.”

Earlier in the day, Harris touted an additional $5.3 million targeted for Pittsburgh International Airport’s $1.5 billion modernization project.

That funding also came from the bipartisan infrastructure law. Last year, the federal government announced a $20 million grant for the Pittsburgh airport.