(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden will announce a plan to replace all lead pipes in the country over the next 10 years, pledging an additional $2.6 billion from the Environmental Protection Agency to improve drinking water, during a visit to the election battleground state of Wisconsin Tuesday.
As part of the plan, 49% of the funding will go to disadvantaged communities as grants or principal loan forgiveness. The agency will also unveil the availability of $35 million in competitive grants for reducing lead in drinking water.
Biden will appear in Milwaukee, where $30 million from his hallmark infrastructure law to replace lead pipes there is accelerating the timeline for completion to a decade from 60 years, according to the White House.
The administration is highlighting multi-million-dollar investments to finish lead pipe replacements in many other cities within a decade, including Detroit, Pittsburgh, Denver and Akron, Ohio, and St. Paul, Minnesota. In other cities like Benton Harbor, Michigan, and Edgerton, Wisconsin, the replacement of all lead pipes has been completed.
“There has never been more federal funding available to remove lead pipes. And let me just add that investing in our water infrastructure is not only an investment in public health, it’s an investment in local economies,” EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said in a statement. “For every $1 billion invested in water infrastructure, we create approximately 15,500 jobs.”
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