Funding is not enough: New EPIC report looks at ways to speed up lead pipe replacement
We know that lead in drinking water is a solvable problem… if we can only speed up the current rates of replacing lead pipes and ensure the funding and resources reach the communities who need them most. Proposed federal funding for lead pipe replacement would be a big step forward. But is the funding enough? We don’t think so.
The Environmental Policy Innovation Center’s new report in collaboration with Corvias, Environmental Consulting & Technology (ECT), and Quantified Ventures, Replacing Toxic Lead Water Pipes Faster: Innovative Procurement and Financing Approaches are Just as Important as Federal Funding, explores some key questions: How do we ensure lead pipe replacement happens faster, so people no longer have to drink water contaminated by lead? What efficiencies can we put in place that have been proven to be effective in other spheres? How do we encourage other innovations that can also help speed up lead pipe replacement?
In this new report, we look at three tools which would speed up lead pipe replacement across the country:
Public Private Partnerships (P3s) - a procurement approach that could more effectively target lead pipes in disadvantaged communities, overcome administrative barriers, and speed up the immediate deployment of capital
Pay for Success or Outcome Contracting authority and initiatives - a mechanism that can be set up to reward and prioritize lead pipe replacement in burdened communities and create positive price pressure to ensure that new funding goes as far as possible
Environmental and Social Impact Bonds - a borrowing and procurement structure that could help maximize private sector and municipal bond financing and operate side-by-side with federal funding
Under current conditions, it’s conceivable that replacing all lead pipes in this country could take - not a decade as some have said - but in fact in an entire lifetime or more. The pending federal funding does not guarantee that the money will reach the communities who need it most or that it will happen any faster.
Lead pipes were installed largely a century ago; we can’t let another century go by before we replace them - especially when innovations and solutions are right in front of us.