NUCA NJ Win: EPA to Address Inequities in Lead Funding

As we alerted the industry in August, New Jersey was getting severely shortchanged on lead service line replacement dollars by the federal government, and we have been working directly with our Congressional delegation to fight for more money. In fact, our NUCA NJ delegation visited their Washington D.C. offices in May during the NUCA National Summit to prepare them for this very issue and to push for their vigilance on how the historic infrastructure funds would be doled out. When it became clear that the US EPA was allocating funding in a totally outrageous and unfair manner for the major focal point of the law, the replacement of lead service lines, we snapped into action. With the exceptional assistance of Congressman Bill Pascrell's office, along with others, the EPA has now officially acknowledged that there is a problem and shares our collective interest that the funding goes to the communities in greatest need and based on how the law intended it to be distributed. Those active on this issue from our delegation will receive a further briefing someone soon as EPA works to fix the problem. Ultimately, New Jersey will go from the 2nd worst to a much higher level of funding in 2023.