Louisiana will get $412,000 in grant funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to remove lead pipes for schools and childcare facilities across the state.
The EPA announced in June that Louisiana is one of the states set to receive part of the $26 million dollars earmarked to replace lead pipes that can lead to a variety of health problems.
“More schools will be able to identify sources of lead in their water and take action,” said EPA administrator Lee Zeldin in a press release on June 13th.
About 9 million water service lines in the country— the pipes that carry water from a public facility to houses, schools and businesses— have lead in their pipes, according to the most recent estimate from the EPA. Just over 140,000 of Louisiana’s service lines are estimated to have lead, along with the unknown status of 268,000 other service lines.
Old pipes that contain lead can corrode over time depending on the chemistry of the water running through, eventually leading to the leaching of lead into drinking water.
Lead poisoning can be especially harmful to children. Even low levels of lead in the blood can cause serious health problems such as neurological problems, growth stunts and behavioral issues, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control.
The CDC also cites children under 6 years old as especially vulnerable to these health hazards. Their bodies are in a phase of rapid development that could be particularly impacted by lead poisoning. Young children also have a tendency to put their hands in their mouths after grabbing items that may have lead, like old paint chips.
Established by the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law amended the 2016 voluntary lead contamination testing program for schools and childcare facilities to include funding to actually remove and replace sources of lead in drinking water.