Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority 'confident' it will meet Biden's goal of replacing lead water pipes

The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority said Friday it is confident that it can meet a new Biden administration goal of removing lead water pipes within a decade.

Strict new rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency this week would require most U.S. cities to replace lead water pipes within 10 years in an effort to reduce lead in drinking water and prevent public health crises. Millions of people drink water from lead pipes, and the EPA said more stringent standards could improve IQ scores in children and reduce high blood pressure and heart disease in adults.

Mora McLaughlin, PWSA’s construction communications project manager, said the authority believes the lead line replacement program it launched in 2016 will swap out all lead lines before the proposed 10-year mark.

The authority launched a lead line replacement program in 2016 after it previously had exceeded a federal threshold of 15 parts per billion of lead.

“Over the course of about seven years, we’ve developed a pretty robust program,” McLaughlin said. “Because we’ve been building and developing a robust system over the last seven years, we’re confident we’re going to meet those requirements.”

The authority already replaced more than 10,000 lead lines, she said, leaving about 8,000 still to be replaced.

Though the EPA’s new goal is to replace all lead water lines within 10 years, PWSA’s goal is to finish the replacement project by 2026, McLaughlin said.

“We’re still working towards that goal,” she said, explaining the authority is working to leverage additional state grants and low-interest loans to fund the rest of the work.

The authority has spent more than $160 million on lead line replacement efforts to date, she said.

“We all know there’s no safe level of lead in drinking water, so it’s good to see the federal government is prioritizing these efforts,” she said.