https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/20/health/epa-water-investment/
"The Biden administration on Tuesday announced $5.8 billion in funding that
will go out to every state and territory to help fix an ailing water
infrastructure that continues to put millions of Americans’ health at risk.
Michael Regan, administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, and
Vice President Kamala Harris will be in Pittsburgh on Tuesday to promote the
administration’s efforts to ensure a safer drinking water system and more
reliable wastewater infrastructure. Projects underway in Pittsburgh – such as
an effort to get rid of lead pipes – are among several across the country that
are being funded through bipartisan 2021 legislation that designated $50
billion toward improving water infrastructure.
“President Biden and I believe that every person in our country should have a
right to clean water no matter where they live or how much money they make,”
Harris said in a news release from the EPA. “With this investment, we are
continuing our urgent work to remove every lead pipe in the country and ensure
that every American has access to safe and reliable drinking water.”
The federal government won’t pick the projects funded by the investment
announced Tuesday. Rather, it will funnel the money to states, territories and
tribes through the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund
programs.
The United States has a vast water system; more than 2.2 million miles of
underground pipes carry drinking water, and more than 16,000 treatment plants
handle wastewater, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. That
allows most – but not all – Americans to have indoor plumbing and reasonably
safe drinking water. But the infrastructure has been earning poor grades from
the society for decades. The climate crisis has further tested the system,
hurting the quality of source water due to salt water intrusion and increased
runoff of sediment and pollutants, and decreasing the amount of water that is
even available.
The civil engineering society gave the country’s drinking water infrastructure
a C- rating in 2021, the last time it did the analysis – and that was an
improvement from the D it got in 2017. The society rated the wastewater system
even worse in 2021, with a D+; stormwater got a D. It’s a report card the
society said was not one “anyone would be proud to take home.”
Many of the country’s water infrastructure problems stem from a general lack of
investment, according to the EPA.
Local governments typically can’t afford to update water systems on their own.
And even when they try, changes can lead to problems like the one in Flint,
Michigan, where in 2016, scientists learned that residents had high blood lead
levels due to corroded pipes from a new drinking water source.
No amount of lead exposure is safe, according to the US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. Exposure, especially for children, can damage the brain
and nervous system and lead to slowed development and growth and cognitive
issues."
Via
Fix the News:
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https://fixthenews.com/good-news-human-rights-greece-education-burundi-reforestation-america/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
