EPA watchdog: Undeserving Florida getting tens of millions for lead pipe substitute whereas Illinois, different states have greater wants

Florida is on monitor to gather practically $1 billion in federal funds it doesn’t deserve to exchange poisonous lead pipes, in accordance with a authorities watchdog report that concludes Illinois and a handful of different states ought to get the cash as an alternative.

By most accounts, Illinois leads the nation within the variety of lead service lines connecting homes and two-flats to municipal water programs, largely as a result of Chicago required pipes fabricated from the brain-damaging steel till Congress banned them in 1986.

1000’s of lead pipes also remain underground in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

However throughout the previous two years the U.S. Environmental Safety Company gave Florida the biggest share of funding put aside by Congress to exchange lead service traces.

The Sunshine State acquired $483 million, in contrast with $471 million despatched to Illinois, despite the fact that a number of of Florida’s massive water utilities instructed the company’s inspector general the poisonous pipes don’t exist of their service areas.

Florida will double its take throughout the subsequent two years if the EPA fails to repair the issue, the inspector general concluded.

“This cash ought to be going to states that really want it,” stated Tom Neltner, director of the nonprofit group Unleaded Kids and former assistant commissioner of the Indiana Division of Environmental Administration.

In a 2016 examine, the American Water Works Association estimated Florida had 200,000 lead service traces. Requested 5 years later if it had adopted up with its personal survey, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection instructed one other nonprofit, the Natural Resources Defense Council, it “doesn’t monitor lead service line (sic).”

However after President Joe Biden brokered a cope with Congress to earmark $15 billion to exchange the poisonous pipes, Florida officers declared the state has 1.1 million lead service traces, a dramatically inflated quantity the EPA inspector common’s investigation discovered is little greater than a mirage.

Officers at 4 of eight Florida utilities interviewed by the inspector common stated they instructed the state they haven’t any lead service traces. All eight disputed the stock Florida despatched to the EPA.

Florida officers blamed the snafu on a contractor however neither state nor federal officers have adjusted the information to mirror actuality, in accordance with the inspector common’s report.

Chicago alone has greater than 400,000 lead service traces. A 2021 Chicago Tribune investigation discovered that greater than 8 of each 10 Illinoisans dwell in a neighborhood the place the brain-damaging steel was discovered within the faucet water of not less than one residence throughout the earlier six years.

What makes the Florida state of affairs extra complicated is the EPA already reduce its annual allotment to a different state, Texas, after Neltner and different advocates questioned how the company divvied up its first share of funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Regulation.

Texas acquired greater than $146 million throughout 2023 however solely $28.6 million in 2024 after Houston instructed the EPA it had flubbed its numbers.

It’s unclear if the EPA will modify future allocations for Florida earlier than Biden leaves workplace in January. In an announcement, the company stated it “continues to work in direction of our objective of allocating funding to locations which have the best want.”

Florida obtained the most important share of lead service line substitute cash to date despite the fact that Republicans who dominate the state’s congressional delegation voted against the regulation that earmarked the funding.

Lead is unsafe at any stage. Ingesting even tiny concentrations can completely harm the growing brains of kids and contribute to coronary heart illness, kidney failure and different well being issues later in life. Researchers estimate greater than 400,000 deaths a year in the United States are linked to lead exposure.