EDF Health

Selected tag(s): Lead

Successful Denver Water Lead Reduction Program Seeks 12-Year Extension

By Roya Alkafaji / Published: September 22, 2022

Roya Alkafaji, Manager, Healthy Communities and Lindsay McCormick, Senior Manager, Safer Chemicals

Denver Water has one of the most successful lead service line (LSL) replacement programs in the country. Since it began the program in 2020, the utility has replaced nearly 14,000 LSLs—prioritizing lines to buildings serving vulnerable populations, such as child-care facilities. Denver Water has also distributed over 102,000 filters to local residents. EPA should continue to support their innovative approach.

Watch this video to learn more about Denver Water’s Lead Reduction Program.

In 2019, we blogged about a novel program that Denver Water designed to address the estimated 64,000 to 84,000 LSLs in its system. These lead pipes connect buildings to water mains under the street.  At the time, the water utility proposed to fully replace all LSLs in their entirety within 15 years under its Lead Reduction Program.

The utility decided to fund the work through water rates and bonds, hydropower production, and other sources. In addition, they proposed to provide filters to residents until six months after replacement of the LSL.

Critically, the program includes a comprehensive effort to engage local partners to reach all members of the community. For example, Denver Water partnered with CREA Results, a local community-based organization that is helping to engage and educate Spanish-speaking and immigrant communities on the risks of lead in drinking water and to ensure that residents understand the steps involved with LSL replacement in their neighborhoods. Denver Water’s program has emerged as a national model and its success is recognized by the Lead Service Line Replacement Collaborative and EPA (including its recent service line inventory guidance).

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Unleaded Juice: Getting Credible Lab Results is Essential

By Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals Initiative / Published: August 2, 2022

Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals

This is the third in our Unleaded Juice blog series exploring how the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sets limits for toxic elements like lead, arsenic, and cadmium in food and the implications for the agency’s Closer To Zero program.

FDA’s move to establish action levels on lead in juice – and eventually other foods that young children eat or drink – is an important step forward. While we believe that the action levels need to be tougher, any action level has a limited value if labs that analyze samples for contamination provide results that buyers, regulators, or consumers cannot trust.

We recommend that labs meet four criteria to provide credible results:

  • Be accredited under international standards for testing and calibration of labs (ISO/IEC 17025);
  • Use the analytical method based on FDA’s Method 4.7 [PDF, 1.16MB];
  • Demonstrate proficiency in a third-party, blinded test to quantify lead, arsenic, and cadmium to around 6 parts per billion (ppb); and
  • Provide a written report of results at that level.

Here is the list of labs that met these criteria as of August 2021. See below for our in-depth analysis.

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Posted in FDA, Lead, Unleaded Juice / Also tagged , , | Comments are closed

An environmental justice case study: how lead pipe replacement programs favor wealthier residents

By Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals Initiative / Published: January 4, 2022

Tom Neltner, Chemicals Policy Director and Lindsay McCormick, Program Manager 

Dr. Karen Baehler and her team at American University’s Center for Environmental Policy, with support from EDF, recently published a peer-reviewed case study highlighting the environmental justice issues that arise when water utilities require property owners to pay when they replace lead service lines (LSLs) that connect homes to the water main under the street. Our experience indicates that the vast majority of the 11,000+ water utilities in the U.S. engage in this practice. Based on the findings, these utilities need to reconsider their programs as they address the more than 9 million LSLs nationwide.  

The study found that Washington, DC residents in low-income neighborhoods between 2009-2018 were significantly less likely than those in wealthier neighborhoods to pay for a full LSL replacement and, therefore, had an increased risk of harm from lead exposure from a partial LSL replacement. 

The practice of requiring customers to pay for a full LSL replacement also raises civil rights concerns in cities like Washington, DC that have a history of racial segregation, redlining, and underinvestment in neighborhoods predominately comprised of people of color. If a utility that follows this practice also receives federal funding such as state revolving loan funds (SRFs), it may be violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. While Washington, DC largely resolved the issue in 2019 by banning partial replacements and addressing “past partials” left in the ground, this scenario is replicated across the country.  Read More »

Posted in Drinking water, Lead / Also tagged , | Authors: / Comments are closed

Fixing America’s lead in water crisis must be a priority for Congress

By EDF Blogs / Published: July 29, 2021

Eric Jjemba, Health Legislative Intern, Joanna Slaney, Legislative Director, and Tom Neltner, Chemicals Policy Director

Last week, over 100 House members led by Representatives Paul Tonko (D-NY), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Daniel Kildee (D-MI), Gwen Moore (D-MI), and Henry Cuellar (D-TX) sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi asking that she prioritize funding for full lead service line (LSL) replacement in “any major infrastructure legislation moving through the chamber.” Additionally, a group of 8 medical and health associations led by the American Academy of Pediatrics sent a letter of their own urging Congressional leadership “​​to fully fund this proposed public health measure with $45 billion.” These letters highlight the broad support around treating America’s lead in water crisis as one that necessitates federal action. EDF, and many others, have advocated  for $45 billion in funding to fully replace the more than 9 million remaining LSLs in the country.

For too many families in this country, turning on the faucet for water essentially means drinking through a lead straw. This hundred year old legacy problem of LSLs impacts communities across the nation, but it disproportionately harms already overburdened communities– those that experience racial, economic, and environmental disparities together. To make sure that necessary assistance reaches those that need it most, including low-income communities, communities of color, and rural communities, the federal government needs to adequately fund full LSL replacement across the country.

EDF applauds the members of Congress and key public health organizations that are continuing to push for this investment, of which we have frequently outlined the clear and tangible benefits. Among these are:

  • Protecting health, especially for children, who are likely to have their brain development impaired by lead, contributing to learning and behavioral problems and lower IQs. While children of color and those from low-income families remain at the greatest risk of lead exposure, adults are also at risk of heart disease – even at low exposure levels. 
  • Reducing disparities by advancing equity for low-income communities and communities of color (including small and rural ones) that may lack the capacity to pursue federal funds, have not developed an inventory of their LSLs, and would not otherwise have the resources to do the work.
  • Creating good paying jobs in construction and plumbing through shovel-ready work. Most communities have a good sense of where many of the LSLs are in their water systems, meaning this work can get off the ground quickly.

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State legislation requires replacement of ¼ of the country’s lead pipes

By Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals Initiative / Published: July 19, 2021

Tom Neltner, Chemicals Policy Director

With the recent passage of excellent legislation in Illinois and New Jersey, one out of every four of the nation’s lead service lines (LSLs) is on a mandatory schedule to be fully replaced, with strict limits on partial replacement in the interim. These states now join Michigan in leading the way on replacing lead pipes– made all the more important because they have some of the highest numbers of LSLs in the country.

Both the Illinois and New Jersey laws[1] were the result of extensive negotiations between stakeholders and were passed with broad bipartisan support. We applaud the bill sponsors and the advocacy organizations that made it happen.

The most significant difference between the three state policies is their deadlines for utilities to fully replace the LSLs:

  • Illinois: range of 15 years to 50 years depending on a given utility’s number of LSLs.
  • New Jersey: 10-year deadline with an option to extend to 15 years
  • Michigan: 20-year deadline.

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Posted in Drinking water, EPA, Lead, Regulation, States / Also tagged , | Comments are closed

Heart disease and adult lead exposure – the evidence grows more compelling

By Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals Initiative / Published: June 30, 2021

Tom Neltner, J.D., is Chemicals Policy Director

Two recent articles add to the already strong evidence that adult exposure to relatively low levels of lead is associated with heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States, after COVID-19. These studies reinforce the urgent need to reduce not only children’s exposure to lead but also adult exposure through regulatory action.

A February 2021 Environmental Health Perspectives article found that blood lead levels were positively associated with prevalence of moderate to severe coronary artery stenosis (CAS), the narrowing of at least 25% of these vital arteries to the heart. The researchers studied a cohort of 2,000 Korean adults studied with no history of CAS, cardiovascular disease (CVD), or occupational exposure to lead. The vast majority of their blood lead levels were below the U.S. Center of Disease Control’s (CDC) reference level.[1] The researchers found that he severity of CAS is an important predictor for life threatening cardiovascular disease, even after adjusting for factors such as age, sex, hypertension, body mass index, regular exercise, smoking, and alcohol drinking.[2]

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Posted in Emerging science, Lead / Tagged | Comments are closed