EPA Announces $10 million in Grants for Lead Pipe Replacements in West Michigan

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler visited West Michigan today (Friday October 23) to announce more than $10 million in grants for lead service line replacements in those two cities. Wheeler was a guest on the WBCK Morning Show with Tim Collins, where he broke the news.  The work will be done in Grand Rapids and Benton Harbor.

Wheeler says the total of $17 million in grants for lead service line replacements will be broken down this way:

• $5.5 million to City of Benton Harbor
• $5.1 million to City of Grand Rapids
• $6.4 million to Providence Water Supply Board

Also, Wheeler announced $22.8 million in grants to test for lead in drinking water in schools and childcare facilities.  Awardees include Indiana Finance Authority, Newark Board of Education, and Boston Public Schools.

Wheeler said the EPA has achieved more in the past four years to advance the mission of the agency under President Trump, than all eight years of the Obama Administration Clean Air/Water Progress

• During the Trump Administration, criteria air pollutant emissions have dropped 7% – the best air quality ever on record – and our water is among the cleanest on the planet.
• The United States now has some of the lowest fine particulate matter levels in the world – five times below the global average; seven times below Chinese levels; and 20% lower than France, Germany, and Great Britain.
• In the 1960s, more than 40% of our Nation’s drinking water systems failed to meet even the most basic health standards. Today, more than 92% of community water systems meet all health-based standards, all the time.

Superfund Sites

• Over the last four years, EPA has fully or partially delisted 82 sites from the National Priorities List.
• By comparison, in the entire first term and combined 8 years of the previous administration, 47 and 82 sites were delisted, respectively.
• In both FY 2019 and FY 2020, we deleted all or part of 27 Superfund sites from the NPL – the largest number of deletions in a single year since Fiscal Year 2001.

Wheeler said that under President Trump, the EPA has saved Americans approximately $95 billion in unnecessary regulatory costs.