NEW LONDON, Conn. — New London marked the start of a major project Monday morning to replace all of the city’s lead water pipes. It’s an effort to keep families healthy by ensuring safe, clean drinking water.
New London is the first municipality in the state to start this work, which is made possible in part by the Federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Act.
“There’s a lot of forward-thinking in the city. We tend to do that with a lot of projects, and this is just another example utilizing some really excellent initiatives from the federal government and trying to move forward with a project that really does have to happen,” said Joe Lanzafame, New London Public Utilities Director.
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The project is part of a bigger initiative by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reduce lead levels in drinking water across the country. President Joe Biden has already called for eliminating the country’s estimated 9.2 million lead pipes.
“Lead pipes have historically been a huge problem in New England and many parts of the country but mostly New England because of the old housing stock. Any amount of lead is really bad for kids’ health, for their education, for their neurodevelopment,” said David Cash, EPA Region 1 Administrator.
“In New London, it’s important to remember that we have no problem with our water. Lead service lines are not contaminating the water at all, but we’re being proactive in replacing them,” said New London Mayor Michael Passero.
The EPA initiative is called the "Lead Service Line Replacement Accelerators.” The initiative is a partnership with the Department of Labor, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Wisconsin and will work with 40 communities across those states in 2023.
The program provides hands-on support from the EPA to guide communities through the process of lead service line removals, from start to finish. ThE help also includes accessing funds from the Federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
“There are other communities in Connecticut that were chosen, nine other communities where we’re going to be focusing on this, but hundreds of communities nationwide. We show how to do it as effectively and efficiently as we can here, it’s going to spread throughout the whole country,” said Cash.
The project in New London is estimated to cost $36 million. City leaders said about 75 percent of that is covered through federal subsidy, and the other 25 percent will come from low-interest loans.
The project is expected to take about three years.
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