the House of Representatives could vote on the
bipartisan infrastructure bill week and it's sure
to include transportation improvements along with
measures to provide clean drinking water for 10 million
american households and expanded broadband. Stephanie
Liebergen joins us now live from Washington details on
the biden administration plan to tackle this issue.
Stephanie, Good morning, what's the latest Good Morning
Day than veronica So the bipartisan infrastructure b
we're still awaiting that vote in the house that we've
been waiting for for weeks now. It is tied to the
future of the larger bipartisan or the larger social
spending bill um that we are waiting on now in the last
week or so. I really took a dive into the bipartisan
infrastructure bill and looking at one specific element
of it and kind of what it would do for homes across th
country. So that in terms of water infrastructure,
which is a part of the bipartisan bill, the bill s
aside $55 billion just, you know, improve water
infrastructure related issues across the country. Now,
a subset of that money, $15 billion is earmarked
specifically to help replace lead service lines. So
these are the individual pipes that run into someone's
house that might still be um, you know, made with lead,
which is a problem. You know, officials across the
country have known for years and for decades now, how
big of a problem lead is um anywhere, especially in
drinking water for kids, for expectant mothers. So that
is something that lawmakers are certainly trying to fix
or trying to help with the bipartisan infrastruct
bill. Talk to some advice advocacy groups who said, you
know, the money is great. It won't get the country all
the way there, it won't be enough money to replace
every lead service line across the country. But it's
definitely a good start. And officials just need to
make sure if that money comes through, that it's
distributed in an equitable way to make sure that, you
know, it goes to some of the neighborhoods most in ne
Well, Stephanie people always get this information.
They think, okay, how does this impact me So for
someone at home listening right now who discovers that
they do have these lead water pipes at home What is the
replacement process entail So that was really
interesting to me as well. Actually went up and saw the
lead pipe replacement process f a home in Northwest D.C.
Now in the District of Columbia, there's a few
different programs that the cit has to offer to help
homeowners get those lead service lines, those lead
water pipes replaced. Now, if it's something that you
discover in your local home that you might have some
lead water pipes start with your local water officials
start with your local city officials, they're most
likely to have some kind of program or information to
help you figure out either how to fund the replacement
process or to, you know, for the city to come in and do
it themselves. So what I want, what I saw up in
Northwest D.C. Last week, it's actually a little bit
fascinating to see how they pull the pipes, They
literally string it through and pull the old lead pipe
out as they're pulling in the new one, kind of in one
swoop. Um, it's not a big mess, they're not digging u
your whole front yard. Um, the house that I saw, I was
able to talk to the homeowner, um, that house was
recently purchased, it, it was up for sale and I talked
to the new homeowner and he said, you know, part of the
reason that he wanted to make sure that this led these
lead water pipes were replaced Before he and his family
moved in. They've got two young kids and it was really
important to them to get those lead pipes out, get any
risk of lead in their water out before he and his
family moved in. This in particular in the spotlight
because of the flint, Michigan water crisis. I think
around 10,000 kids were exposed to a potential lead
exposure there. How many across the country that were
still in use and what's the biggest hurdle to that
process you just mentioned So flint is certainly not
alone. We've even had a recent headlines in a state of
emergency in benton harbor michigan where lead with
such an issue that they're handing out hundreds of
thousands of bottles of water for families to use for
everything from washing their dishes to taking a shower
to flushing their toilets. So it is still a big issue
across the country, officials. I talked to experts, I
talked to estimate there's somewhere between 15 to 25
million homes in the US who still might be serviced by
some kind of lead water pipe. This isn't something that
you know, there's, it's easy to have a hard number.
Everything is a bit of an estimate. Even here in
Washington, D.C. Um, the head of D.C. Water told me
that they know they have 10,000 homes that are served
by lead water pipes. There's another 16,000 homes wh
they just don't know, they're not 100% sure whether or
not there's a lead water pipe in the ground serving
those additional 16,000 homes. But nationwide it is
still a big issue. Um, the biggest thing that official
say they need to get those um lead water pipes repla
is funding is money. And so that's where the bipartisan
infrastructure bill really come in with folks telling
me that it could be a game changer for their local
community and helping getting these lead service lines
replace. But that's not the only issue. It's not just
funding. Um, I talked to scott barry from the US water
alliance and he told me that local politics come into
play as well. So there's a lot of issues uh involved in
this. But funding being the biggest one that would kind
of help get these pipes replaced, always comes down to
money area Stephanie, Liebergen live for us this
morning in Washington. We appreciate the update. Thank
you.