Vice President Harris highlighted federal action to replace lead pipes at an event in Pittsburgh on Friday.
The bipartisan infrastructure law President Biden signed in late 2021 includes more than $4 billion to replace all the nation’s lead pipes. Lead contamination of water supplies has been linked to lead poisoning and learning disabilities, most notoriously in the case of Flint, Mich., which exposed up to 12,000 children to lead.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge also announced in Pittsburgh that the administration will make $500 million available to states and local governments to address the risks of lead paint and other similar home-based environmental hazards.
Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in February announced $20 million in grant funding to remove lead contamination in drinking water in schools and communities. In May, the EPA also announced it would make $728 billion in new grants available for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund to address contaminants and natural disaster preparedness.
“We know that all people have a right to be able to drink clean water, that all people have a right to breathe clean air,” Harris said. “So we approach this from that perspective, that we as a society and certainly we as a government must ensure that that right is real and that it is protected.”
The vice president highlighted economic disparities that have prevented the removal of contaminants like lead from lower-income communities. These factors, she added, illustrate that drinking water is an equity issue as well as an educational and public health issue.
“All people have a right to drink clean water. It should not be a function of how much money you have to remove the lead,” she added. “This is literally an issue about the education of our children, because we know there’s a direct correlation between lead pipes and learning ability or disabilities based on the toxins that are present in this water.”