Hickenlooper, Englewood officials tout city’s efforts to replace lead water pipes • Colorado Newsline

U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper joined local officials and community members in Englewood on Friday for a demonstration and conversation about removing lead pipes.

In May, the Environmental Protection Agency awarded 32.8 million US dollars Colorado is tasked with identifying and replacing lead pipes in drinking water lines. Englewood Utilities received $10 million and $30 million in low-interest loans to replace about 3,000 lead pipes. The federal funds came from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

“That's how we should proceed, and when the election is over, it won't matter if you're a Republican or a Democrat,” Hickenlooper said. “We're all on the same team trying to solve these problems.”

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Hickenlooper, a Democrat, discussed the city's lead pipe removal process and the health risks associated with lead with Englewood city officials and public health experts. Lead contamination in drinking water can cause permanent neurological damage, particularly in children or pregnant women.

Pieter Van Ry, director of Englewood Utilities and South Platte Renew, showed Hickenlooper what contractors do to cut lead service lines and replace them with copper at a home where the process was underway. The home belongs to Jim Luethke, who said the pipe replacement gave him peace of mind that his children and grandchildren are drinking clean water.

“I think it's a minor inconvenience to have the front of your house torn up for a couple of days or a day and the water shut off for about five hours,” Luethke said. “And sometimes you have to reroute the local blockages, but that's not a big deal if you have clean water.”

Englewood's lead reduction program is available to homeowners at no cost, but utility rates may increase to finance it.

“Programs like the one Englewood is doing here are a huge win for public health. They eliminate the largest source of lead in our water system and are also a huge win for environmental justice,” Nicole Rowan, chief of the Water Quality Control Division at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said at the event.

U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper joined local officials and community members for a demonstration and conversation on lead pipe removal in Englewood on Sept. 13, 2024. (Lindsey Toomer/Colorado Newsline)

John Michael, a spokesman for CDPHE's Division of Water Quality Control, said the department is helping local water systems conduct their own initial lead service line inventories, which must be submitted to the state by Oct. 16. The state does not perform lead pipe removal and replacement work, but water systems interested in federal funds to support lead reduction efforts must apply by the state.

“Water systems must replace lead service lines they own and offer to replace lead service lines owned by customers, but are not required to cover the cost of replacing lead service lines owned by customers,” Michael said in an email.

CDPHE estimates there are as many as 111,900 lead pipes across the state. Denver has also started a lead reduction program that involves replacing pipes in certain homes across the city. Michael said once the state gets the first inventory of water systems, it will have a better idea of ​​which systems need to be replaced.

“In general, we would expect to find some communities built before 1960 to have lead service lines,” Michael said. “However, not all communities used lead service lines before 1960. There may be communities in older areas that have lead service lines, but newer areas may not.”

Rebeca Medrano, strategic partnerships manager at Conservation Colorado, said it's especially important to provide clean, safe and affordable drinking water to disproportionately impacted communities. She said about 40% of Coloradans fall into that category, including people of color and from low-income communities.

“Colorado has been aware of the significant risks posed by lead in our water for many years, and from what we hear, the effects of lead are very frightening,” Medrano said.

Research As of 2021, evidence shows that black children and children in low-income communities consistently have higher blood lead levels than their non-Hispanic white peers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about half a million children in the U.S. have elevated blood lead levels, meaning the amount of lead detected in a blood test is higher than in most other children.

Colorado received $100 million from the bipartisan infrastructure bill to fund Airport improvementsand $28.6 million for Improvements in road safetyamong other projects.

“When we did this in Washington, I was really confident that it would be implemented properly,” Hickenlooper said of planning the bill. “We really thought about how we could design the actual legislation so that the state government had a real role and an incentive to make sure that it granted autonomy to counties and municipalities.”