The Tartan

By Hailey Cohen

On Feb. 20, Vice President Kamala Harris visited Pittsburgh to announce that $5.8 billion in federal funding is being allocated to clean water projects across the U.S., with $200 million set to go to Pennsylvania projects. Of the $200 million, $75 million will go to replacing lead service lines in the state.

From 1999 to 2016, the city of Pittsburgh had rising levels of lead in water. In 2016, the measured level of lead in water was about 20 parts per billion, and according to the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA), that amount has since declined to 3.4 parts per billion in 2023.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Lead and Copper Rule, established in 1991, states that if lead concentrations reach 15 parts per billion, the water system must be reviewed and improved upon to reduce lead levels.

The Center for Disease Control has published that no amount of lead is safe for anyone to ingest. Lead is especially harmful for children, as it causes brain damage and development issues. The effects of lead are not reversible and have long-term impacts on IQ and attention span. However, lead is so dangerous because these effects are not immediately visible — lead builds up in the body, so if a child is at a point where they are having obvious symptoms of lead poisoning, there is not much that can be done to reduce lead levels in the body.

Vice President Harris addressed the physical harm of lead and other toxins in water during a speech she gave at the Kingsley Association Community Center in East Liberty. She said that the lead crisis “is an infrastructure matter, but it is also a public health matter.” Harris also acknowledged that not everyone feels the effects of lead in water at the same magnitude.

“Of course, the folks who have extra resources … can pay to replace the lead pipes in their home,” Harris said. “But people in low-income communities or people who rent often cannot.”

Pittsburgh’s lead crisis was due to a combination of problems in funding, operations, and governance. Most older cities in the United States were built using lead pipes to distribute water.

“Even though there was an awareness of the fact that lead had harmful effects, particularly upon painters working with lead paint, there was a kind of willingness to accept the fact that the lead in the water pipes really was not a serious kind of problem,” explained Joel Tarr, a Carnegie Mellon professor emeritus.

Later, around the 1970s, scientists discovered that lead poisoning was a very serious problem. But just because a city uses lead pipes, that does not mean that everyone drinking that water will get lead poisoning. With proper treatment and water management, a protective coating can form around the inside of the pipes so that water does not interact with the lead.

In 2014, the PWSA switched from adding soda ash into the water to using caustic soda instead. This change was made without notifying the EPA and without testing for impacts of the change in chemicals. A major difference between these two substances is that soda ash leaves a protective barrier on pipes, while caustic soda does not.

The PWSA had been facing a lack of funding and regulation for a long time before this, but these issues were heightened when the city hired Veolia in 2012. Veolia is a private water management company that makes recommendations on how cities should run their water systems. Veolia’s management of Pittsburgh’s water focused on the most cost effective measures possible. In 2012, caustic soda was less expensive than soda ash.

Since 2019, the PWSA has been adding orthophosphate to city water, a chemical which creates that protective barrier on the inside of lead pipes. This decision was approved by the EPA and a study was conducted on long-term effects before adding the chemical to Pittsburgh’s water. The PWSA has also committed to replacing all lead pipes in the city by 2026. They have already replaced 11,000 lead service lines and have about 6,000 left, claiming to be on track for their goal. The $75 million dedicated to the problem by the Biden administration will contribute to that project.

At the core of the lead crisis in Pittsburgh is a question of inequality and environmental justice. As federal and local governments decide to fight for clean water, they are using taxpayer money to pay for portions of these projects. In 2023, the PWSA initiated an increase in water rates that would bring the average monthly water bill from $86 to $100 per customer.

This increase was approved by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission in January. While there are discounts available for low-income households, everyone’s water bills will be increasing in the coming months.

Tarr explained how water inequality is not a new idea in Pittsburgh. He said when Carnegie Tech was formed in 1901, it was after decades of Pittsburgh residents dying from typhoid fever due to water contamination.

Instead of having students drinking city water, Tarr said, “it was decided to bring water in from the mountains by railroad car. It was stored in a huge tank on the side of what is Porter Hall today.” This way, Carnegie Mellon students were able to drink clean water while other city residents had to drink contaminated water.

The full transcript of Vice President Harris’s speech on clean water in Pittsburgh can be found on the White House website.