(The Center Square) — The feds are sending more than $119.8 million to fund drinking water upgrades, including the removal of lead pipes, across Georgia.
The federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, included $6.5 billion for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, established with 1996’s changes to the Safe Drinking Water Act.
“EPA’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund enables states to make the critical investments needed to improve drinking water infrastructure,” EPA Region 4 Administrator Daniel Blackman said in an announcement. “This funding … will ensure safe drinking water and enhance public health protections in underserved communities across the Southeast.”
The feds made the state allocations based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 7th Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment. The survey, mandated by the Safe Drinking Water Act and conducted every four years, evaluates the nation’s public water systems’ infrastructure needs.
“The ability to drink clean water free of lead and other contaminants should be a human right not a privilege,” U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Georgia, said in an announcement. “Particularly for our young school children, who are more susceptible to the effects of lead exposure. We know from testing in 2017 that some DeKalb County schools had lead in pipes more than 150 times the EPA’s recommended level.”
By T.A. DeFeo | The Center Square contributor
