Why lead service lines disproportionately impact disadvantaged communities Boulder recently announced that the city has no lead service lines

The end of lead pipes: An engineer’s take on the historic national effort to eliminate them

Published: Oct. 29, 2024 • By Yvaine Ye
Title image: The scene at the Replacing Lead Pipes for Clean Drinking Water event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on 8 October 2024. (Credit: USEPA)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced this month that it will require utilities to replace all lead drinking water pipes serving customers in the country within the next decade, marking the most aggressive regulation on lead in drinking water to date.

“This new rule is part of a progression of not just trying to treat a symptom but going back to the source and removing that material from our everyday use,” said Julie Korak, assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering.

The rule comes a decade after the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, when the city’s failure in water treatment exposed nearly 30,000 schoolchildren to lead, a neurotoxin that can impact children’s brains and nervous systems.

The EPA estimates that there are more than 9.2 million lead service lines—underground water pipes that serve water from public pipes into properties—in communities across the country. If a structure was built before 1986, there's a higher chance it has a lead service line, Korak said. To support this effort, the EPA has announced $2.6 billion in new funding. While replacing all these pipes will be a huge undertaking, it needs to be done, she added.

“We have to recognize that there are disparities where the presence of lead service lines disproportionately impacts disadvantaged communities. To promote equity across our country in terms of what kind of environmental hazards we're exposed to, it's important to address this disparity.”

The municipal government of Boulder recently announced that the city has no lead service lines after conducting a two-year inventory. Denver Water, the utility serving the city, has replaced 24,000 lead service lines, about a third of the estimated total, by July 2024.

As water utilities around the country race to identify and replace lead service lines, CU Boulder today sat down with Korak to chat about the new rule and how individuals can protect themselves from lead in water. 

https://www.colorado.edu/today/2024/10/29/end-lead-pipes-engineers-take-historic-national-effort-eliminate-them