Detroit's great lead pipe replacement effort
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Detroit's Water and Sewerage Department is using federal and state funding to accelerate progress toward its goal of replacing all of the city's lead water service lines within a decade.
The big picture: The city needed financial assistance to pay for lead line replacements without making water rates more expensive. Water department director Gary Brown says this money helps meet the total estimated $800 million cost.
Flashback: Last May, the city announced it was accelerating replacement work using a $75 million state environmental grant from American Rescue Plan Act funding, plus another $10 million from the state and $5 million from the EPA.
- Detroit stopped allowing lead lines in 1945 but many homes built before then still have them.
- The city's drinking water test results published in 2023 showed 9 parts per billion last year, under the state's action level of 15 ppb.
The latest: On Friday, an EPA executive joined the city to celebrate progress replacing lead lines, a necessary undertaking because lead can leach into drinking water as pipes corrode.
- Mayor Mike Duggan said during the press conference that the Biden-Harris administration is taking early action to give cities funding to replace lead pipes, instead of waiting for tragedy to strike first.
Zoom in: Use NPR's tool to find out if you have lead pipes, or watch the water department's instructional YouTube video.
- Learn more about lead exposure and steps to take to reduce lead in drinking water from the EPA. Risk varies from person to person, but there's no safe lead blood level for young kids.
What they're saying: "Detroit has a large stock of houses built before 1945, and they're served by lead service lines, and that's why this city is taking a neighborhood-by-neighborhood approach, using data to identify vulnerable populations," said Bruno Pigott, the EPA's acting assistant administrator for water.
By the numbers: The city plans to replace 8,000 lines this year and that many or more per year for the next decade. So far in 2024 it has replaced nearly 5,000, and since 2018 it has replaced more than 9,000, according to the department's website.
- The city is confident there are a minimum of 80,000 lead service lines across the city.
- However, there are 20,000 that are "undetermined" and are being treated as lead until verified, Brown said Friday.
Context: Brown's department uses several demographic factors to decide where to replace lines first — areas where more children and seniors live, neighborhoods that are the most economically disadvantaged and areas with more than 70% lead lines, he said Friday.