Photo by iStock
Congress has a historic opportunity to solve a problem plaguing millions of Americans across the country: lead pipes. With as many as 12 million lead pipes carrying water to over 20 million Americans, it is no surprise that polls show majorities across the political spectrum want to see lead pipes eliminated from this country’s water system. Unfortunately, the bipartisan infrastructure bill falls far short of the investment needed to replace 100 percent of lead pipes. Thankfully, the U.S. House of Representatives has proposed billions of dollars more as part of the Build Back Better Act, and now all eyes are now on the Senate to also make a historic investment in clean water. And new polling demonstrates that the U.S. public supports these efforts to close the funding gap through the Build Back Better Act.
Drinking water quality is a top-of-mind priority for most Americans, and studies have consistently shown that low-income communities and communities of color have a disproportionately high risk of lead exposure compared to other communities. Gallup, one of the oldest polling organizations in the country, has been tracking public environmental concerns for decades. They’ve found that, for over 20 years, Americans have been more concerned about water pollution than any other environmental issue. And while most voters think their tap water is at least somewhat safe to drink, communities of color are less likely to say their tap water is safe to drink. In a recent poll from Climate Nexus and researchers at Yale and George Mason universities, only 17 percent of Black voters say their drinking water is very safe compared to about a third (35 percent) of white voters. This increased concern reflects the actual higher risk that Black communities continue to face, as was evidenced through the Flint water crisis.
Overwhelming majorities of American voters want to see our public water systems improved, and they want to see lead pipes eliminated once and for all. A Morning Consult poll conducted in March found that 81 percent of voters say they’re concerned about the existence of lead pipes. And 83 percent of voters support eliminating all lead pipes in our drinking water systems, according to a Navigator poll conducted in April. This includes 73 percent of Republicans, 80 percent of Independents, and 91 percent of Democrats. These percentages are remarkable and demonstrate that supporting the elimination of lead pipes is a political winner.
Of course, it’s one thing to support lead pipe removal in theory, and another to support significant federal spending on the problem. But when it comes to lead pipes, Americans decidedly want to see lawmakers dedicate the dollars needed to eliminate this threat to our drinking water system once and for all. The Morning Consult poll found that four in five voters say lawmakers should prioritize funding the replacement of lead pipes. When researchers from Data for Progress told survey respondents that the bipartisan infrastructure bill had fallen short of the investment level needed to replace all lead pipes, an overwhelming 72 percent of voters said they would support investing tens of billions of dollars more to ensure all lead pipes in America are replaced. This includes majorities of Republicans, Democrats, and independents.
Congress has a clear mandate from the American people to spend what’s necessary to eliminate lead pipes in the country’s drinking water infrastructure. Now it’s on the Senate to deliver on that mandate by investing billions of dollars more in lead pipe replacement to ensure all Americans have access to safe drinking water.