Pittsburgh water agency to spend $50M to replace lead pipes

The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority’s water treatment plant in Aspinwall. (Photo by Ryan Loew/PublicSource)

Pittsburgh’s beleaguered water authority will spend $50 million to replace lead service lines, give filters to low-income residents and take other steps to address the city’s lead crisis under a settlement approved Thursday by state utility regulators. It comes a week after the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office filed criminal charges against the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, alleging it mishandled a lead pipe replacement program in 2016 and 2017 and put more than 150 households at elevated risk of lead poisoning. The authority, which had previously admitted civil liability in the case and was fined $2.4 million by state environmental regulators, is fighting the charges.

Clean-water advocates hailed Thursday’s settlement as a significant step toward reducing lead levels in the city’s drinking water, and as a model for other cities also struggling with lead.

“The people of Pittsburgh have been drinking lead-contaminated water for far too long. This settlement requires aggressive, affordable solutions to protect public health and hold officials accountable to the people they serve,” Dimple Chaudhary, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement.

Chaudhary, who led a […]

Full article: Pittsburgh water agency to spend $50M to replace lead pipes

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