Guidance

2024 Water Affordability Needs Assessment

EPA’s 2024 Water Affordability Needs Assessment Report provides an estimate of the water affordability burden felt among households and utilities across the nation.

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Guidance

Tapping into Lead Service Line Funding Opportunities

Explore a list of funding and financing resources utilities can consider to fund lead service line replacement.

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Guidance

Drinking Water 123: Finance Your System

Best practices in setting fair and viable water rates, and options for utilities to finance capital improvement projects to ensure your community’s drinking water system remains safe and sustainable.

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EPA Water Technical Assistance

Water Technical Assistance (WaterTA)

EPA’s Water TA connects communities to experts who help assess and implement solutions for their drinking water, sewage, and stormwater needs, including LSLR.

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Federal funding

Environmental Finance Centers

EPA has selected 29 Environmental Finance Centers (EFCs) to deliver targeted technical assistance to local governments, states, Tribes, Territories, and non-governmental organizations to protect public health and safeguard the environment. Under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the selected EFCs will help communities access federal funding for water infrastructure improvements.

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Tools & Guides Calculator

LCRI Compliance Timeline Calculator

Use our calculator to determine if your water system is eligible for a deferral under the current Lead and Copper Rule Improvements.

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Area Deprivation Index

A data-driven approach to prioritize neighborhoods for LSLR

Milwaukee uses an Area Deprivation Index to prioritize neighborhoods for LSLR.

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Construction worker rolling out a copper pipe

Lead FAQs: When can I get my lead service line replaced?

Greater Cincinnati Water Works collaborated with the University of Cincinnati to develop a Prioritization model.

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DC lead service line replacement plan

DC Water 2023 LSLR Plan: Prioritization for the Block-By-Block Program

DC Water uses a model to prioritize LSLR in disadvantaged communities that are already marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution.

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Water pipe with lead corrosion

Jacobs Hires University Students to Inventory Wisconsin’s Lead Service Lines and Meet Federal Deadlines

The Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin, along with Jacobs Engineering and UW Oshkosh, hired students to collect service line information.

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Milwaukee is one of the few cities in the country with a prioritization plan to ensure neighborhoods likely to suffer the most severe impacts from lead poisoning get their pipes replaced first. In consultation with a community-based group, Coalition for Lead Emergency (COLE), and following a public engagement process, Milwaukee included in an ordinance three indicators to prioritize where LSLs will be removed first:

  1. The area deprivation index (ADI), which is a compilation of social determinants of health
  2. The percentage of children found to have elevated lead levels in their blood when tested for lead poisoning
  3. The density of lead service lines in the neighborhood.

Read more here.