How Newark is Leaps Ahead of the EPA’s New Lead and Copper Rule
December 5, 2024 – When President Biden announced new rules to eliminate lead exposure in drinking water through nationwide lead pipe replacement, Newark Water & Sewer Utility Director Kareem Adeem was the only invited guest whose major city already accomplished the goal.
“I’d like to think that once we proved it could be done, the Biden Administration upped the ante for other cities,” said Director Adeem.
During an event in Milwaukee on Oct. 8, President Biden announced that every American city, town, and water system would have to replace all its lead service lines within 10 years.
“Every lead pipe must be replaced — every single one,” President Biden said as he announced the new rules, which will be overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Since 2021, the Biden Administration has made over $60 billion available for lead pipe removal and other lead remediation, including the $55 billion in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and another $3 billion from the Biden-Harris Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan.
Those two measures were passed within months of Vice President Kamala Harris’s visit to Newark on Feb. 11, 2022, when she called Newark “the national model” for lead line replacement. The replacement of over 23,000 lines in the city, which was estimated to take eight years, was completed in just under three years. It was the first comprehensive and expedited lead service line replacement program of any major city in the United States.
“We are already well ahead of the EPA’s new regulations for lead and copper,” said Director Adeem. “Every known lead service line in Newark has been removed.”
Director Adeem said Newark outlawed the use of lead service lines in 1953, 33 years before the federal government ban, and that the Newark Water & Sewer Utility records on lead lines “were impeccable.”
“We have a small number of properties where the service lines are classified as unknown and we’re digging now to identify them,” Director Adeem said. “If they’re brass or galvanized, we’ll replace them with copper, like we did in the rest of the city.”
The latest results of Newark’s water tests show 0 parts per billion (ppb), well below the EPA safety threshold of 15 ppb.
“Lead exposure is a public health threat”, emphasized Director Adeem. “We are glad that funding is being made available for other cities to follow suit, get the lead out, and protect the health and safety of residents across the nation”.
Learn more about the City of Newark’s Lead Service Line Replacement program at newarkleadserviceline.com.
Newark residents and businesses: check your service line records here.