Albany — Environmental Advocates NY released a new report on Thursday morning, analyzing, in part, state spending data on lead pipe replacement.
The report, Breaking Barriers to Lead Service Line Replacement in New York, found lead service lines were in use in nearly every one of the dozen utilities interviewed.
“We talked with about a dozen utilities across the state of New York who are in charge of implementing getting the lead out of drinking water, and what we found is that New York is still at the very early stages of replacing all of its lead pipes. We have until 2037 to achieve 100% lead pipe replacement, as required by the US Environmental Protection Agency, but we’re not going to meet that goal unless New York State steps up with more funding and more policies to help get these pipes out of the ground as efficiently and equitably as possible,” Rob Hayes, Environmental Advocates NY’s Senior Director of Clean Water and a co-author of the report, tells CBS6.
They estimate there are about 555,000 lead service lines in New York State, and replacing them all by 2037 is projected to cost $695 million per year.
“One of the biggest areas where New York needs to improve is providing funding to communities to help them replace lead pipes,” Hayes told CBS6. “New York State is lagging behind when it comes to getting funding to communities to help them upgrade their infrastructure. New York has invested billions of dollars in clean water in recent years, but only a minuscule portion of that has gone towards lead pipe replacement. Governor Hochul has resources at her disposal, where tomorrow she could announce a historic investment to replace 10s of 1000s of lead pipes. We hope that she does.”
Click here to read the full report. Stay tuned for more details on local municipalities.