Pennsylvania’s lead pipe problem one of the worst in the nation

(The Center Square) — Few states have as many miles of lead pipes for water service as Pennsylvania.

But cleaning up the problem isn’t so simple, even with more federal funding.

Pittsburgh and Philadelphia alone report 29,000 and 25,000 lead pipes, respectively, and a report from the Natural Resources Defense Council noted that its numbers underestimate the problem due to a lack of data.

“Pennsylvania, and all through the northeastern part of the country, we are all facing this aging infrastructure issue,” said Michelle Naccaratti-Chapkis, executive director of Women for a Healthy Environment, or WHE.

WHE tries to create healthy spaces where young children often go: schools, homes, and daycares.

“The primary message for us is there’s no safe amount of lead exposure,” Naccaratti-Chapkis said.

The council report estimated more than 660,000 service lines in Pennsylvania contain lead.

“In a new level of detail, we see a pervasive problem with cities and towns, big and small, across the country that have documented where people are drinking through what amounts to a lead straw, and where we do not even know the pipe materials,” Erik Olson, Valerie Baron, Matthe McKinzie, and Susan lee wrote for the council.

State and federal funds have provided funding for lead pipe removal in recent years. In January, Gov. Josh Shapiro announced $200 million for water system upgrades and lead pipe removal. The commonwealth received $300 million in 2022 for water infrastructure projects.

State legislators have also pushed for more state funding. Last winter, a bipartisan trio in the Senate pushed a bill that would have dedicated $30 million to test school water systems for lead. That proposal, Senate Bill 986, did not move out of the Education Committee.

Lead service pipes can be under the control of public water systems or in private homes, beyond the reach of the water company. If a home has lead, there are still some ways to mitigate its impact.

“A health-protective measure is utilizing a filter, whether that’s in a home, your school, or your early learning center,” Naccaratti-Chapkis said. “We have seen filters work as long as people maintain that filter and replace it as often as needed.”

She also encouraged water systems to be transparent about lead in their systems and make the information easily available on their website so users are aware.

But data on lead pipes, either locally or federally, has had its issues. A May investigation by the Associated Press found that the $3 billion sent out by the Environmental Protection Agency relied on unverified data, mistakenly giving more to some states and less to others.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provided $15 billion nationally for lead pipe replacement; the United States has more than 9 million lead pipes still in use.