DC's lead water crisis has gone on for far too long. Since the lead outbreak in 2004, DC Water has not done enough or worked fast enough to remove all lead water service lines from our infrastructure.
Working with the Lead-Free Coalition, we're supporting people-led legislation that would remove all lead pipes equitably – starting with the wards with most demonstrated need and impact. To do this at the scale needed, we need massive investment and jobs opportunities. That's why we support the GND for Lead-Free DC.
The effects of lead-poisoning are especially damaging to children and pregnant people. In the US, it is estimated that over 400,000 individuals die each year due to lead poisoning. As of March 2023, there were 30,887 known lead service lines in DC, and an additional 25,000+ lines marked as “unknown”. Based on a report commissioned by the Council of DC in 2022, it is estimated that at least 42,323 pipes will require replacement.
Why are we still here? Why has there been such little progress since the 2004 DC water crisis?
NO MANDATE: Despite a law passed in 2004 to facilitate the removal of lead water lines, there is no law that requires DC Water - a private utility company - to replace lead pipes. Without a mandate, progress is left up to DC Water's private and profit interests, which does not center the urgency of the issue and the prosperity of the people.
NOT ENOUGH FINANCIAL SUPPORT, NO RENTER PROTECTIONS: Most of the work completed to date has been on a voluntary basis – where property owners register and pay for DC Water’s lead-replacement service. Because the program is not free, many people are unable to afford to have their pipes replaced. Additionally, because this work has to be approved by a property owner, DC renters (a majority of residents in the city) have no rights or protections if their landlords decide to forgo these costs.
As a case-in-point, it is in the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods where most known pipes have already been addressed. Compared to Ward 3, where residents report higher incomes and many are homeowners, and where they had a 66% replacement rate, Wards 7 and 8 – which serve predominantly low-income and Black communities and renters – have 19% and 27% replacement rates overall for both public and private lines.
WORKFORCE OPPORTUNITIES: Removing 40,000 pipes - from stripping roads to repaving them - is no easy feat, and it requires the appropriate workforce to get the job done. DC Water has not invested sufficiently in creating job opportunities for local DC residents to get trained on and hired for lead-line removal jobs in their own communities.
LIMITED GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT: Despite having a goal to replace all lead pipes by 2030, the DC Mayor and DC Council do not exercise enough oversight over DC Water, leaving residents much at the whim of the private company. If the DC Council passes a law demanding a goal by 2030, this will give the government - and therefore the residents - more oversight and power over the agency's progress on lead line replacement.
A GND is a policy framework that centers our people and our planet. It works to tackle the intersection of the climate and economic crises by creating clean, union-backed jobs to address our community’s direct needs and build climate resilience. The GND for Lead-Free DC creates a law that demands DC Water to remove all lead water lines by 2030. By passing and funding a GND, we can create hundreds of good jobs with hands-on training to achieve full lead-line removal by 2030. The Green New Deal takes an intersectional approach to all of the issues that are named above!
Cities in which mandates have been enacted have demonstrated that a better world is possible. For example, Newark, New Jersey established a removal program that allowed the city to get rid of all its lead pipes in just 2 years, with no cost to the homeowner. In Flint, the passage of the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR), which funded the creation of jobs for lead removal, meant that the city was able to nearly finalize lead-line replacement in 2022. DC could be the next city to achieve this amazing feat.
When it comes to money, the GND for a Lead-Free DC works smarter, not harder. Despite millions of dollars being invested to make lead-line removal more affordable, only 600 households were able to benefit from this support between 2020-2023. The bill would authorize the use of funds not just to make it affordable, but to make it free, and to create
We are grateful to our partners at SPACEs In Action and in our Steering Committee who developed the Lead-Free DC Toolkit from which we sourced much of the information above. To learn more, visit bit.ly/sia-leadfree.
Right now, the DC Council is marking up a version of this bill. We're concerned that the Council will cut the pieces of the bill that make it accessible to renters and that invest heavily in job creation for local DC residents who needs good union jobs. If you want to lend your voice, please email DC Councilmember Charles Allen, who chairs the committee at callen@dccouncil.gov and the Environment Committee Director at kwhitfield@dccouncil.gov.
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Last Update: May 2024