Freshwater 510 Policy Brief Milwaukee, Wisconsin as a Case Study for National Lead Drinking Water Infra- structure Challenges Executive Summary: Aging drinking water infrastructure is an issue facing many American cities; cost estimates for upgrading the entirety of the nation’s drinking water infrastructure are in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Lead infrastructure in particular is an issue of growing concern as many municipalities are forced to face the reality of antiquated infrastructure reaching the end of its useful life. Existing poli- cies regarding lead pipe detection and rehabilitation are outdated and need reconsidering in order to tack- le these increasingly complex and prevalent issues. In 2013, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) completed its fifth assess- ment of public drinking water infrastructure needs. The results of this survey indicated that $384.2 bil- lion is needed for infrastructure projects from 2011- 2030 in order to ensure that the entire population has access to safe drinking water (US EPA 2013). The EPA goes on to conclude that the nation’s water sys- tem has entered a, “rehabilitation and rehab era”, as infrastructure deterioration nears reaching critical mass (US EPA 2013). The total cost was divided in- to specific components in need of upgrades; trans- mission and distribution networks were shown to account for most of the need highlighting the fact that the nation’s drinking water infrastructure is quickly nearing the end of its useful life (Figure 1). Lead drinking water infrastructure prevalence A large part of drinking water infrastructure needs includes replacing the high amount of anti- quated lead pipe infrastructure throughout the nation. The American Water Works Association estimated in 1990 that there were over 3 million lead service lines and over 6 million lead connections in the homes and businesses in America (Schmidt and Hall 2016). Lead is a powerful neurotoxin that can cause biological and developmental deficits and is espe- cially dangerous to children; estimated societal costs of lead poisoning in the United States have been tal- lied in the billions (Hanna-Attisha et al. 2016). Although most drinking water systems containing lead infrastructure are able to use inhibitory agents, such as ortho-phosphate, to prevent the corrosion of pipes and associated leeching of this dangerous metal, situations can still arise where exposure is inevitable. The ongo- ing crisis in Flint Michigan highlighted this all too well as the entire city was effectively poisoned due to a combination of antiquated infrastructure and admin- istrative negligence (Sanburn 2016). Dealing with out- dated lead infrastructure is a challenge that absolutely must be addressed in order to meet drinking water in- frastructure needs. The distribution of the millions of lead pipes in the nation is not even; lead infrastructure is particular- ly common in many Northeastern and Midwestern states, such as the state of Wisconsin. A limited EPA study concluded that there were over 176,000 lead service lines throughout the state, with the highest Figure 1. National drinking water infrastructure needs by cate- gory. Source: EPA
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Transcript
Freshwater 510 Policy Brief
Milwaukee, Wisconsin as a Case Study for National Lead Drinking Water Infra-
structure Challenges
Executive Summary: Aging drinking water infrastructure is an issue facing many American cities; cost
estimates for upgrading the entirety of the nation’s drinking water infrastructure are in the hundreds of
billions of dollars. Lead infrastructure in particular is an issue of growing concern as many municipalities
are forced to face the reality of antiquated infrastructure reaching the end of its useful life. Existing poli-
cies regarding lead pipe detection and rehabilitation are outdated and need reconsidering in order to tack-
le these increasingly complex and prevalent issues.
In 2013, the United States Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) completed its fifth assess-
ment of public drinking water infrastructure needs.
The results of this survey indicated that $384.2 bil-
lion is needed for infrastructure projects from 2011-
2030 in order to ensure that the entire population has
access to safe drinking water (US EPA 2013). The
EPA goes on to conclude that the nation’s water sys-
tem has entered a, “rehabilitation and rehab era”, as