Harris visit to N.J. city spotlights lead water pipes
NEWARK, N.J. — Schkeema Troutman had just started describing the difficulties of trying to raise a family in a city with high levels of lead in its drinking water when Vice President Kamala Harris noticed the mother of three was not being heard.
Troutman’s microphone was not working during a round-table discussion Friday in Newark. So Harris stood and handed over her microphone to amplify Troutman’s story.
“You have so many different things to worry about,” Troutman said of owning a home near lead service lines.
“That’s the thing,” Harris responded. “You should not have to worry about that.”
The exchange highlighted Harris’ aim in traveling to Newark, which the administration views as a model for how a community can overcome water contamination after years of neglect. But for Harris and the White House, the trip was also an opportunity to amplify issues directly affecting underserved communities.
The White House has made the removal of every lead pipe in the U.S. within 10 years a centerpiece of its plan to address racial disparities and environmental issues in the wake of water contamination crises in recent years in cities such as Flint, Mich., and Newark. As many as 10 million lead service lines still deliver water to schools, offices, homes and day care centers throughout the country.
Harris said Newark, which removed about 23,000 lead pipes in nearly three years, could provide a road map for communities across the U.S. She described the issue as not just a “public health crisis,” but also one fueling racial disparities.
“Lead pipes do exist in high-income communities. But in high-income communities, they have the income to fix it, which means that whether it gets fixed or not might be a function of how much money you have,” Harris said. “And that’s not right.”
Harris used the event to highlight $15 billion in funding to remove lead pipes as part of the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package that President Joe Biden signed in November.
Biden initially proposed $45 billion for lead removal. Another $10 billion was tucked into a social-safety net and climate package that’s been stymied by congressional gridlock.
Officials and residents in Newark on Friday commended Harris for focusing on lead exposure, which can damage the brain and kidneys and interfere with red blood cells that carry oxygen to all parts of the body. The neurotoxin poses a particular danger to children, whose nervous systems are still developing.
“This is just what communities need: to be heard,” said Yvette Jordan, a teacher and chair of the Newark Education Workers Caucus. She was one of the plaintiffs who last year agreed to settle a federal lawsuit accusing Newark and state officials of violating safe water laws.
“But this is a first step, not a last step,” Jordan said.
City officials in Newark were not always eager to talk about the issue. Mayor Ras Baraka, who sat with Harris on Friday, was long accused of neglecting the problem, even mailing a brochure to residents claiming that “the quality of water meets all federal and state standards,” despite evidence of alarming levels of lead.
But after scrutiny from community organizers and the federal government, the city began to acknowledge the severity of the issue. Newark accomplished its turnaround before the passage of the infrastructure bill, with Baraka receiving $120 million in bonds from the county’s improvement authority.
If the Biden administration wants to see that progress replicated across the country, it will need the funding outlined in the social-safety net package, said Erik Olson, senior strategic director for health at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group. But even that might not be enough, as removing every lead pipe in the nation could cost $60 billion, according to one industry estimate.
Olson’s organization has called for the Environmental Protection Agency to strengthen federal regulations and require localities to remove lead pipes. It recently sent a letter to the agency, calling for the administration to prioritize investments to underserved communities.
“We’re worried,” he said, that “they will be left behind.”