Salt Lake City will receive $39 million in federal funding to replace lead service lines in the city’s drinking water system.
Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, announced federal funding to help upgrade the city’s aging water infrastructure Friday alongside Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson and Tom Perez, the senior adviser to President Joe Biden.
Salt Lake City will become the first water utility in Utah to receive the federal infrastructure funding.
“These investments are critical to our quality of life in Salt Lake City, as water is such a valuable and depleting resource in the American West,” Mendenhall said.
Identifying service lines to homes that contain lead can be challenging, said Dustin White, manager of the Lead and Copper Program with the city’s Department of Public Utilities, and residents who own homes built before 1950 should check if they have lead pipes.
White said a simple magnet test can help people identify if they have lead pipes — if a magnet sticks to the pipe, it is a steel service line, if the magnet doesn’t stick, it could be a lead or copper pipe. Copper pipes, he said, are the color of a penny.
“The intent is to find these and then go through a process of removing them,” White said.
Lead exposure is harmful, especially for children, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, health effects can include brain and nervous system damage, slowed growth and development, behavioral problems and hearing and speech problems, which can lead to a lower IQ, decreased ability to pay attention and underperformance in school.
So far, the department has identified 126 private buildings serviced by lead pipes. Homes on the southeast end of the city and in Federal Heights are more likely to have lead pipes, according to the city.
This map, provided by Salt Lake City's Department of Public Utilities, shows the areas in the city where lead pipes are most likely to be present. The city announced Friday that it would use federal funds to replace many of those pipes.
“There’s so many more unknowns … so there is an urgency to find these pipes,” White said, “and it takes a concentrated effort for the community.”
Every American, Hemhoff said, has the right to clean drinking water.
“But the climate crisis and the aging infrastructure in our country, that is a threat to this essential right to clean water,” he said.
The Biden-Harris administration has announced that Utah will receive $580 million in water infrastructure investments — $36 million is going to the City Creek Canyon Water Treatment Facility, which provides clean water to over 365,000 residents.
“The investments announced here today, for lead service line replacement will go a long way to ensure some of the most underserved neighborhoods in Salt Lake City’s west side have access to clean, safe drinking water,” Turner Bitton, chair of the Glendale Community Council, said.
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