Nearly $33 million in federal funding is on its way to Colorado to underwrite a series of lead pipe replacement projects.
The funding, as announced by the Environmental Protection Agency, will see the removal of existing lead pipes and copper pipe replacements in neighborhoods throughout the Centennial State.
The new funding, said Colorado Senator Michael Bennet in a statement, is an “important step forward to help communities across Colorado replace harmful lead pipes without placing additional financial burdens on homeowners and small businesses.”
Earlier documentation has shown that there are just under 110,000 lead service lines in Colorado, with the vast majority located in the metro Denver area.
While the funding is regarded by state and local officials as a step in the right direction, earlier reports have indicated that it may ultimately cost as much as $12 billion to completely remove all of the existing operative lead pipes in Colorado.
In 2020, the City of Denver launched a 15-year program to remove lead pipes feeding into households in the city, a program that some forecasts have said could cost as much as $700 million to complete.
Last year the City of Grand Junction similarly launched its own lead pipe abatement effort, initially identifying nearly 100 lead service lines on public property and another nearly 50 on private property.
A study released in 2021 indicated that some 72% of children under the age of six in Colorado were found to have some lead in their blood, a figure alarming to state health officials, given that the national rate is around 51%.
In a column written for the Colorado Sun, KC Becker, regional administrator for the EPA in Colorado, noted that as lead has been removed from gasoline and paint products in recent years, it shouldn’t exist in “the water we use to make macaroni and cheese, soup, and hot chocolate.”
Funding for the EPA lead pipe effort in Colorado is specifically coming through the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
By Garry Boulard
Image Credit: Courtesy of Pixabay
