Saying no American should drink water contaminated with lead, the Biden administration on Thursday announced a plan to replace all of the nation’s lead service lines.

As part of the initiative, the Environmental Protection Agency will send $2.9 billion next year from the newly passed bipartisan infrastructure law to states, territories and tribes to replace lead pipes. 

Lead can enter drinking water when plumbing materials corrode. When consumed, the poisonous metal can cause a number of health problems, including higher blood pressure and decreased kidney function in adults. It can cause premature births and birth defects in unborn children. And even low levels in children can severely harm their physical and mental development.

Lead can enter drinking water when plumbing materials corrode. When consumed, the poisonous metal can cause a number of health problems, including higher blood pressure and decreased kidney function in adults. It can cause premature births and birth defects in unborn children. And even low levels in children can severely harm their physical and mental development.

Lead pipes still carry water into up to 10 million American households, and 400,000 schools and child care centers also are at risk of exposure to lead in their water, the White House said. A study this year by Quest Diagnostics and Boston Children’s Hospital found that half of U.S. children under age 6 have detectable levels of lead in their blood.

Vice President Kamala Harris announced the plan in a speech Thursday at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington.

Harris said she’s spoken to many parents over the years “who were worried that every time they turned on the faucet to give their child a glass of water that they may be filling that glass with poison. Parents who worry as they make breakfast in the morning or in the evening help their children to brush their teeth that they are exposing their children to something that could harm them.

“The bottom line is that there is no reason in the 21st century for why people are still exposed to this substance that was poisoning people back in the 18th century,” the vice president said.

Harris said low-income communities and communities of colors are disproportionately exposed to lead. She added that there’s also a financial cost of billions of dollars — from higher health care costs, lower earnings and lower tax revenue. 

The White House plan calls for 15 new actions from more than 10 federal agencies. They include working with local, state and federal partners to accelerate the replacement of lead pipes over the next decade, the EPA launching a new regulatory process to protect communities from lead in drinking water, and the Treasury Department clarifying that leftover funding for state and local governments from the American Rescue Plan can be used for replacing lead service lines, faucets and fixtures.

The plan also seeks to remediate lead paint, which presents significant hazards to 24 million housing units nationwide, according to the White House.

The EPA rules, which are not expected to be finalized until 2024, would require lead pipes be replaced as quickly as possible and could also include new testing requirements for drinking water systems.

“Obviously, the vice president and the president are thankful that the infrastructure bill passed to rebuild America, the ports, the airports, the roads, the bridges, expansion of high-speed internet,” Mitch Landrieu, White House infrastructure coordinator, told Spectrum News. “But one of the really important pieces of this is to deal with the part of our infrastructure that actually is harming our kids and harming folks, and one of those is exposure to lead. 

“This is something that actually unites the country, whether it's urban or rural. … Everybody thinks about Flint, Michigan, which is kind of woke America up to it. But this has been a problem for a very long time, just like deteriorating infrastructure for the last 50 years.”

The infrastructure law includes $15 billion for lead service line replacement, but that might not be enough. The American Water Works Association estimates the cost to replace all of the country’s lead pipes could exceed $60 billion, and Biden initially sought $45 billion to cover the cost.

The White House says, in addition to using unspent pandemic relief funding, it’s continuing to work with Congress to provide resources aimed at ensuring clean drinking water and removing lead paint through Biden’s $1.85 trillion Build Back Better proposal. 

“Also, in that regard, because states and cities know this money is coming and other money has been sent down, we feel like this partnership will put enough money together to actually fix this problem,” Landrieu said.

Harris said she chose to make Thursday’s announcement at the AFL-CIO headquarters because skilled union workers, including plumbers and pipe fitters, will be needed to install the new pipes.

“We need your help to make sure this is the beginning of the end for lead in America,” she told the audience.