President Joe Biden will be in Milwaukee on Tuesday to raise funds for drinking water improvements and pipe replacements.
The effort will be funded by $2.6 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. He will also announce the final rule of the US Environmental Protection Agency that requires the replacement of drinking water pipes that connect water on the street to properties, known as service lines, by 2037.
“This funding not only provides clean drinking water, but this effort also creates good paying jobs, most of them union jobs, in replacing pipes leader and my clean water,” said White House deputy chief of staff Natalie Quillian.
Lead poisoning can have lifelong effects, especially for young children, and there is no safe level of exposure. The mains include cutting paint and pipes to carry drinking water.
Before the inspection was announced, Milwaukee water officials and Common Council members expressed concerns that the increased attention to lead pipes would can give people a false sense of security because of the serious dangers of paint on old buildings in the city.
On Monday, Mayor Cavalier Johnson pushed back on those concerns.
“We haven’t even seen the ball in terms of paint,” Johnson said. “It’s important to deal with this issue about the back end of the service, of course, but it’s also important to make sure that we’re reducing the problem of paint and driving in the mud and things like that.”
In 2021, the city provided $26 million in federal grants for paint abatement. Additional funding related to lead paint is set to be announced by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Milwaukee County is expected to receive $7.75 million of the nearly $13 million awarded to Wisconsin, according to the White House.
Biden’s visit to Milwaukee comes amid VP Kamala Harris’ campaign for the White House
Biden’s visit on Tuesday will come as his Vice President Kamala Harris is running against former President Donald Trump for the White House. Both campaigns are debating in Wisconsin, a swing state, ahead of the November 5 election.
In July, Biden dropped out of his race for re-election after a controversial debate and endorsed Harris.
The Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Michael S. Regan, said that Harris was “an important partner in the EPA as we traveled the country and really emphasized the vision of the president, of the 100% leaderless future and helping the public understand the implications of the leaderless vision.”
Wisconsin to get $43 million of $2.6 billion for drinking water improvements and pipe replacements, White House says
That’s a $43 million cut of the $2.6 billion that will go to Wisconsin. The state government will determine how much to give to local water systems, according to the White House.
City of Milwaukee to replace 2,400 lead service lines by 2024, Water chief says.
The City of Milwaukee has approximately 65,000 residential lead service lines, according to the Milwaukee Water Works website.
Since January 1, 2017, the city has replaced more than 8,000 lead pipes, said Water Works Director Patrick Pauly at the council’s Public Works Committee last week. past now.
About 2,400 lead pipes will be replaced in Milwaukee this year — more than 2,200 members of the budget, Pauly said.
Last year, the city received $30 million to replace lead service lines, and Pauly said the city has requested $34.2 million for 2025. He hopes the award will be promoted. at the beginning of this month.
The water utility is looking to replace 3,500 lead service lines by 2025. It needs to increase the number of replacements each year in 2026 and 2027 in order to meet the 2037 deadline to complete all the changes. , he said.
Milwaukee water officials, council members have raised concerns about the paint
At the committee meeting last week, questions were raised about the resources that the pipeline will lead to and attention to that source of tar over other sources such as paint
Historical data show that even in buildings with lead service lines, water corrosion control is “very school,” said Water Resources CEO Michelle Natarajan.
“The problem is that lead is volatile, and whenever there’s a lead pipe or a lead service line, there’s a lot of risk,” the woman told the committee. “So, it’s not bad to get rid of it, but a lot of resources are being spent in a place where we don’t see the level of lead in the water.”
Ald. Robert Bauman said that replacing lead pipes has “almost become an article of faith in the country, … but the actual data does not indicate that it is a big problem.”
According to Pauly, the challenges of reducing lead in paint and soil are much bigger than replacing the lead service line, which he said could be done within four hours. The focus, he said, in some ways has changed to water and leading service lines because it is an easy process to calculate.
He expressed concern that it could give residents a false sense of security.
“We fight, as I believe the Ministry of Health is doing, with the focus on the skin in the water, it is very harmful to the public if we do not emphasize the dangers from other contributors,” Pauly told the committee. “If there is a belief in the water and the main service line is changed but it is safe, that is a bad thing.
A Journal Sentinel analysis of Department of Health records last year showed that high rates of lead-free children in Milwaukee were concentrated in census tracts that are predominantly black and home-owning. late and high violation of the constitution – a proxy for the low level. Buildings where lead paint is scattered are a particular hazard for children.
These factors were more strongly associated with rates of lead poisoning than other variables, such as the presence of lead service lines. Although lead pipes are a cause of lead exposure in children, they exist in many parts of the city regardless of population and income level.
On Monday, the Sen. Tammy Baldwin Milwaukee County will receive $7.75 million and Kenosha County will receive nearly $5.2 million to remove paint from homes. The funding comes from the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction program, according to Baldwin’s office.
(This article has been updated to add new information.)
Alison Dirr can be reached at adirr@jrn.com. Mary Spicuzza can be reached at mary.spicuzza@jrn.com.
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