DC Water Gets EPA Loan

Recently at an event with Washington D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser,  DC Water General Manager David L. Gadis, and other local officials, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael S. Regan announced a $156 million Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan to the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water). This loan will help finance water infrastructure improvements throughout the city, including new water mains to improve drinking water quality and reduce service disruptions resulting from breaks in aged pipes.

DC Water serves more than 700,000 residents and has lagged behind in maintaining it water infrastructure. They estimate that their Comprehensive Infrastructure Repair, Rehabilitation and Replacement Program will cost $319 million.  EPA’s WIFIA loan will finance nearly half of that figure—saving DC Water an estimated $30 million in financing costs.  The Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 2014 established the WIFIA program which is a federal loan and guarantee program administered by EPA. WIFIA was created to accelerate investment in the nation’s water infrastructure by providing long-term, low-cost supplemental credit assistance for regionally and nationally significant projects. 

Funding for drinking water infrastructure has not kept pace with the growing need to address the aging infrastructure. The federal government’s share of capital spending in the water sector fell from 63% in 1977 to 9% of total capital spending in 2017. The Presidents next two trillion spending plan proposes $56 billion toward upgrading and modernizing America's wastewater, stormwater, and drinking water systems through grant and low-cost loans, another $45 billion allotted specifically toward a goal of removing 100% of lead service lines in the nation.

Washington DC’s 2019 internal audit has found that, based on reports submitted to the EPA there is still measurable amounts of lead in Washington DC households' drinking water. From testing it is know that lead is not present in the water before it enters the DC Water distribution system. The lead is coming from either the piping delivering water to the homes (the laterals) or from the household plumbing. 

In 2003, the EPA required DC Water to begin an accelerated lead pipe replacement program. In support of this mandate, the city passed a resolution to fund the lead pipe replacement program in 2004. This resolution required DC Water to replace all known lead service lines in public space by September 30, 2010, and replace any newly discovered lead service lines within 90 days of discovery. The resolution also required DC Water to encourage customers to  replace their private side portion of the lead service lines when the public side is replaced, offering the property owner the same rate as DC Water’s actual cost. This did not happen. The program came to a grinding halt when it was discovered that replacing half the line made the lead problem worse.

Based on information in DC Water’s service line inventory database, there are a total of 125,574 service lines in Washington DC. There are 19,103 sites with known lead service lines throughout the District. However, the pipe material for 98,969 of 125,574 service lines on customers’ properties were unknown. At the 2019 rate of replacement, it would take 36 years to replace all 19,103 known sites with lead service lines. If a significant portion of the unknown service lines are made of lead, replacement could take many multiples of that estimate. Hopefully, this $156 million WIFIA loan to DC Water will finally allow them to fix the lead pipe problem in DC.