Government
Flawed Data Skewed Lead Water Pipe Fix Funding, EPA Watchdog Says
US Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water disputes conclusions drawn in the Oct. 21 inspector general report on lead service line replacements
A review of funding to states under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to replace lead drinking water service lines found at least two, Texas and Florida, that used flawed data to gain allotments in fiscal 2023.
The report, released Oct. 21 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Inspector General, concluded that about $2.8 billion in agency allocated funding under the federal law for the replacements was based on data that did not reflect the actual numbers of compromised lines in those states.
“Every lead service line dollar misallocated is a dollar taken away from states that rely on federal funding to assist communities at risk of lead-contaminated drinking water,” EPA Inspector General Sean W. O’Donnell said in a statement. “We have warned the [agency] repeatedly about the real and significant consequences of using unreliable data. EPA needs to fix these systemic flaws before more taxpayer dollars are misdirected.”
For fiscal 2023, EPA based its allotments for line replacements on each state's responses to a supplemental questionnaire to the Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment released in September 2023.
The IG said the questionnaire was originally designed to provide estimated line replacement costs, not to allocate funding. “As such, [it] lacked the rigorous internal controls needed to endure data quality and reliability, and did not implement the needed internal controls after the purpose of the ... questionnaire expanded,” O’Donnell said
A data entry error resulted in an estimate 95% higher than what was needed, according to the IG. EPA corrected that error for Texas for fiscal 2024, but the levels allocated for Florida remained higher than the needs identified through the IG analysis. About $343.7 million of “questionable” allotments were made in those two states as a result, the EPA watchdog said, adding that funding for fiscal 2025 and 2026 could be skewed if the agency does not address concerns with the way data are collected.
Although the 2021 federal funding law provides $15 billion for lead service line replacements, the total is much less than the estimated $50 billion to $80 billion said to be needed to replace all such lines nationwide.
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In its formal response to the report, EPA’s Office of Water took issue with its conclusions and recommendations, stating that the IG failed to consider agency input in developing the audit.
The IG "used incomplete and invalid evidence" to address evaluation objectives and support the draft report findings and conclusions,” wrote Bruno Pigott, water office acting administrator.
EPA said that the IG should have acknowledged that the LSL questionnaire redirected hundreds of millions of dollars where the needs were greatest, something that the quadrennial drinking water survey and assessment would not have been able to do.
But the agency said it shares IG Office concerns about unreliable reporting provided by Texas and Florida and is evaluating further corrective action.
Erik Olson, senior strategic director for health at non-profit advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council, said it also has concerns about data accuracy and has noted them publicly.
But not all the fault is EPA's, he said. The agency sent data requests to thousands of water systems in all 50 states. But many have failed to fully comply with requirements of the 1991 federal Lead and Copper rule, which mandated systems with elevated lead levels to confirm the number of existing lead service lines, Olson said.
