Roughly 9.2 million lead pipes carry water into homes across the U.S., and alarmingly, most of them are in Florida, according to a new survey from the EPA.
The survey found that Florida has an estimated 1.16 million lead pipes. That’s more than other states that are considered to be more industrial, including Ohio and Pennsylvania. The survey comes to light as the Biden Administration aims to remove all lead pipes in the U.S.
This is the first survey of its kind, and the information taken from it will be used to determine how billions of dollars from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will be used to locate and remove lead pipes in states that need it the most.
Previously, a state’s share of lead pipe funds was based on its general infrastructure need and did not consider how many lead pipes the state had.
Lead can cause brain damage, and the EPA says no amount of lead is safe for children.
With regard to Florida, lead pipes were most frequently installed in the decades before the state’s population boomed.
Along with the survey, the EPA also announced states, U.S. territories and tribes will have $6.5 billion to upgrade drinking water infrastructure, $6 billion of that is coming from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The EPA went on to say the location of many lead pipes is still unknown.
A health and food expert at the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council, says the EPA was “trying to do the right thing” by using its survey to direct lead pipe funds to states that need it most, but he called Florida’s figure “a big surprise.”
The expert said the state told his group in 2021 that it doesn’t track lead service lines. The Natural Resources Defense Council’s estimate for the state was about 200,000.
The survey also found that over the next two decades, the U.S. needs to spend $625 billion on upgrading its drinking water infrastructure. That includes upgrading pipes that are too old, broken, and in some cases, made of lead.