Feds sending Georgia $119.8 million for water safety upgrades

(The Heart Sq.) — The feds are sending greater than $119.8 million to fund consuming water upgrades, together with the removing of lead pipes, throughout Georgia.

The federal Infrastructure Funding and Jobs Act, also called the Bipartisan Infrastructure Invoice, included $6.5 billion for the Consuming Water State Revolving Fund, established with 1996’s adjustments to the Secure Consuming Water Act.

“EPA’s Consuming Water State Revolving Fund allows states to make the crucial investments wanted to enhance consuming water infrastructure,” EPA Area 4 Administrator Daniel Blackman mentioned in an announcement. “This funding … will guarantee secure consuming water and improve public well being protections in underserved communities throughout the Southeast.”

The feds made the state allocations primarily based on the U.S. Environmental Safety Company’s seventh Consuming Water Infrastructure Wants Survey and Evaluation. The survey, mandated by the Secure Consuming Water Act and carried out each 4 years, evaluates the nation’s public water methods’ infrastructure wants.

“The power to drink clear water freed from lead and different contaminants must be a human proper not a privilege,” U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Georgia, mentioned in an announcement. “Significantly for our younger faculty youngsters, who’re extra inclined to the results of lead publicity. We all know from testing in 2017 that some DeKalb County faculties had lead in pipes greater than 150 instances the EPA’s really helpful degree.”