Thursday, President Biden is expected to announce an infusion of funding aimed at eliminating the country’s dangerous lead pipes that carry drinking water into people’s homes and businesses.
The Environmental Protection Agency will be handing out a total of $3 billion to every state and territory in the U.S. through the president’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
“The Biden-Harris administration has committed to removing 100% of lead service lines as quickly as possible so that everyone in this country can turn on their tap for a glass of water and know that it’s safe to drink,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan told reporters ahead of the announcement.
But in Flint, Michigan — whose residents are credited with bringing attention to the dangers of lead service lines to the country — removing them all has been anything but quick, a recent Scripps News Investigation found. Our exclusive report revealed that hundreds of lead service lines there still haven’t been replaced, and more than 1,000 addresses remain unchecked.
Scripps News Investigates
Scripps News Investigation: A decade, a contempt order, and $100M later, ‘Flint is not fixed’
6:51 PM, Apr 25, 2024
“We’re still here,” Flint resident Melissa Mays told Scripps News last month. “We’ve done a lot for the rest of the country with getting people’s pipes out, getting laws changed … but we’re still not fixed,” she said.
Last week marked a decade since the City of Flint was thrown into a water crisis that exposed its 100,000 residents to lead contamination and left a dozen people dead. It was later found that officials from Flint, the state of Michigan and the EPA knew about safety concerns in the water, but had only taken action after tests showed children were poisoned, with alarmingly high levels of lead in their blood.
Damage from lead is irreversible and poses an especially significant threat to children’s developing brains. The Centers for Disease Control and others say no amount of lead is safe to consume.
“This is the United States of America, for God’s sake,” President Biden said in January 2022. “Everyone in this country should be able to turn on the faucet and drink clean water,” he said.
Carlos Osorio/AP
Biden, who was vice president when the crisis in Flint started in 2014, committed to replacing the estimated 10 million lead services lines across the country when he signed his Bipartisan Infrastructure law at the end of 2021.
A few months after he signed it, he had this to say in his remarks about the historic piece of legislation:
“I want you to know: I see you, I hear you. We understand. And I’ve seen and we’ve — understand the damage done in places like Flint, Michigan …”
Since Flint’s water crisis was first exposed, a few cities have managed to start and finish their service line replacement projects. Meanwhile, Flint residents are still waiting.
Scripps News was the first to report that the project to remove dangerous pipes in Flint had been on hold since December while the city looked for more money to finish the job. That’s because nearly all of the over $100 million in federal and state funds set aside for the project had been spent.
Paul Sancya/AP
On Wednesday, a Flint city spokesperson told Scripps News work had just resumed on the project — a week after our reporters pressed the city on the stoppage. A city spokesperson said they had secured $1.5 million from the state and were committed to replacing the hundreds of known lead pipes we discovered were still in the ground. They also confirmed they would be following up on the more than 1,000 addresses we found that have never been checked in the 10 years since this crisis started.
The city admitted $1.5 million won’t be enough, but it’s unclear how much more it will take to get the job done.
On the call with reporters to discuss the administration’s upcoming funding announcement, Scripps News asked if federal officials were aware that Flint — a decade after its crisis began — was still struggling to get all of its lead pipes out of the ground and didn’t know how it would fund the rest of the work.
An official said she did not have specific details about city numbers in front of her, but said “we are certainly here to provide resources to cities and to states in looking for other funding opportunities.”
With today’s announcement, the State of Michigan is set to receive nearly $62 million in new funding to replace lead pipes. It’s unclear yet if any of that would go to Flint.
The Biden administration has committed a total of $15 billion for the national project. That’s about $1,500 to find and replace each line.
A City of Flint spokesperson told Scripps News last month 10,522 service lines had been replaced so far. In Flint, that works out to about $10,000 per line.
A series of Scripps News reports since last May have shown ongoing problems with the project. Some of that reporting was cited by a federal judge in March holding the city in contempt for not finishing the job.
Scripps News Data Reporter Amy Fan contributed to this report.
This story will be updated. Email investigative producer [email protected] with questions or tips.
