Pieter Van Ry, director of Englewood Utilities and South Platte Renew, shows U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper how a construction team replaced the lead water pipes at Jim Luethke’s house in Englewood, on Sept. 13, 2024. (Lindsey Toomer/Colorado Newsline)
U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper joined local officials and community members in Englewood Friday for a lead pipe removal demonstration and conversation.
In May, the Environmental Protection Agency awarded $32.8 million for Colorado to identify and replace lead pipes in drinking water service lines. Englewood Utilities received $10 million for this purpose, as well as $30 million in low-interest loans to replace about 3,000 lead service lines. The federal funding came from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
“This is the way we ought to operate, and once the election’s over, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat,” Hickenlooper said. “We’re all on that same team trying to solve these problems.”
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Hickenlooper, a Democrat, joined Englewood city officials and public health experts to discuss the city’s lead pipe removal process as well as the health risks associated with lead. Exposure to lead in drinking water, particularly in children or pregnant people, can cause lasting neurological damage.
Pieter Van Ry, director of Englewood Utilities and South Platte Renew, showed Hickenlooper what the construction companies do to cut off service lines containing lead and replace them with copper at a house that just had the process done. That home belongs to Jim Luethke, who said the pipe replacements gave him peace of mind that his kids and grandkids are drinking clean water.
“I think it’s a minor inconvenience to have your front of your home kind of ripped apart for a few days, or a day, basically and water off for about five hours,” Luethke said. “And sometimes you have to divert around the local blockages, but that’s not a very big deal to have nice water.”
Englewood’s lead reduction program is offered to homeowners at no cost, though utility fees may increase to support its financing.
“Programs like what Englewood is doing here is a big win for public health, and it’s removing the largest source of lead in our water system, and it’s also a big win for environmental justice,” Nicole Rowan, director of Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Water Quality Control Division, said at the event.
U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper joined local officials and community members for a for a lead pipe removal demonstration and conversation on Sept. 13, 2024, in Englewood. (Lindsey Toomer/Colorado Newsline)
John Michael, a spokesperson for CDPHE’s Water Quality Control Division, said the division is helping local water systems conduct their own initial lead service line inventories, which are due to the state by Oct. 16. The state doesn’t conduct any lead pipe removal replacements, but water systems interested in federal funding to support lead reduction efforts must apply through the state.
“Water systems must replace lead service lines that they own and offer to replace lead service lines owned by customers but are not required to bear the cost of replacing the customer-owned lead service lines,” Michael said in an email.
CDPHE estimates there may be up to 111,900 lead service lines across the state. Denver also started a lead reduction program, replacing pipes in certain homes throughout the city. Michael said once the state receives the initial inventory from water systems, it will have a better idea of what systems will need to be replaced.
“In general, we would expect to see lead service lines in some communities built before 1960,” Michael said. “However, not all communities had used lead lines before 1960. We may see some communities with lead lines in older areas and no lead lines in newer areas.”
Rebeca Medrano, strategic partnerships manager with Conservation Colorado, said getting clean, safe and affordable drinking water to disproportionately impacted communities in particular is imperative. She said about 40% of Coloradans fall into that category, including people of color and low-income communities.
“For many years, Colorado has recognized the significant risks that are posed by lead in our water, and as we hear the effects of lead are very scary,” Medrano said.
Research as recent as 2021 continues to show that Black children and children in low-income communities consistently show higher blood lead levels than their non-Hispanic white counterparts. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about a half a million children in the U.S. have elevated blood lead levels, meaning the amount of lead found during a blood test is higher than most other children.
Colorado received $100 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to fund airport improvements, as well as $28.6 million for road safety improvements, among other projects.
“As we were doing this in Washington, I had real confidence that this would be implemented properly,” Hickenlooper said about planning the law. “We really looked at, how do we put the actual legislation in such a way that the state government has a real role, and that they have an incentive to make sure that they give autonomy to the counties and the municipalities.”
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