WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin and Congressmen Steny H. Hoyer, Dutch Ruppersberger, John Sarbanes, Kweisi Mfume, Jamie Raskin, David Trone, and Glenn Ivey (all D-Md.) announced $29,917,000 from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to remove and replace lead pipes in communities across Maryland. The federal funding, provided through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, will support Maryland’s efforts to identify and replace lead service lines and reduce exposure to lead from drinking water. As required by the infrastructure law, 49 percent of these funds must be provided as grants and forgivable loans to disadvantaged communities – a crucial investment for areas that have been left behind for too long.
This investment is in addition to the $240 million that the lawmakers announced last year for Maryland through both the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Programs, which also came in large part from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
“Lead pipes pose a serious threat to the health of our communities and are especially harmful to our most vulnerable: young children and older adults. We passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to fund priorities like this and boost our efforts to eliminate these dangerous pipes once and for all – including in areas that historically have been overlooked. With this investment, we’re bringing clean, safe water to all our communities,” said the lawmakers.
Created in 1996, the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund enables states to carry out critical water infrastructure improvement projects. In addition to replacing water pipes, funding from this program has also been used to improve drinking water treatment, construct or replace storage tanks, and implement other projects to protect public health.
In all, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act provides more than $50 billion to EPA over five years for programs like these to improve the nation’s drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure – the single largest investment in water that the federal government has ever made.
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