Data will be key to lead pipe removal efforts, nonprofit says
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States have about a year to confirm their plans to remove lead service lines with the federal government. Preparing data now could help officials draw such plans more efficiently.
In New York, a recent state audit raised concerns about officials’ insufficient efforts to remove lead service lines. The findings underscore how states like New York are striving to find and remove lead water pipes before 2034, and one nonprofit says data is a critical key to achieving that goal.
According to the audit released last week, more than half of New York municipalities did not use their share of $30 million in state funding that was allocated in 2018 to replace lead pipes, partially due to unclear guidance from state officials on how to spend the grant money. The audit also highlighted inadequate or missing data as a problem, with 951 out of 2,951 water systems failing to report their service line inventory by an Oct. 16, 2024 deadline.
New York is not alone in its efforts to forge safer drinking water infrastructure and conditions for residents. In 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency began revising its lead and copper rule, which regulates the substances in drinking water across the U.S.
One of the major changes to the original rule, established in 1991, was a requirement for water systems to report an inventory of their service lines by October 2024. At the same time, EPA also mandated drinking water systems locate and replace lead service pipes in their community within a decade.
Improved collection and visualization of data could help jurisdictions like New York — where communities still experience high levels of lead in their drinking water — allocate resources for lead pipe replacements more efficiently, said Josh Klainberg, senior vice president of the nonprofit New York League of Conservation Voters Education Fund.
Doing so is particularly critical as water systems are required to share their pipe inventory and removal plans with EPA by Nov. 1, 2027.
That’s why the New York League of Conservation Voters Education Fund has recently launched an interactive online map that displays the location of service lines and if they are lead based or not. It also flags whether a pipeline’s material type is unknown.
According to the map, there are 285,755 lead service lines and potentially another 966,085 pipes that could possibly be lead in New York. The data comes from public water systems’ inventory reports, which are required annually under a bill passed in 2023 that NYLCVE helped advocate for. The map leverages geographic information system technology from Esri.
“Visualization of this data is important for the storytelling, not just for the people who are affected by [lead pipes], … [but] also the policymakers who can actually do something about this,” Klainberg said.
Users can, for instance, filter pipe-location data by county or city level, as well as by state assembly, congressional or senate boundaries, to drive public awareness efforts and planning for lead pipe removal operations, he explained.
Such data can be particularly helpful, as water service lines often cross public and private property boundaries, Klainberg said. While a public water system may be able to fix infrastructure that falls under their jurisdiction, they cannot compel a resident to replace the pipes that are connected to their private home.
A more complete picture about the state’s service line infrastructure can help inform legislative measures aimed at addressing public-private service lines, he said. NYLCVE, for instance, is supporting a bill that would enable water systems to replace lead lines at no direct cost for customers.
“Hopefully the mapping will catch everybody up quickly, because [lead pipe] replacement has to begin in November 2027,” Klainberg said. The data also serves as an equalizer to ensure location and removal efforts reach everywhere in need, particularly communities with higher concentrations of lead pipes.
“The mapping visualization has been incredibly helpful in guiding these conversations, because it's making it very real for legislators who realize, ‘Wow, I have thousands of property owners that are going to want these answers,’” Klainberg said.
Data like NYLCVE’s map is one tool for spurring such conversations, he said, and informing the policy and public financing efforts needed for states like New York to meet the nation’s goal of removing lead pipes.