Last month, the U.S. EPA issued a new rule: drinking water systems across the country have to find and replace lead pipes within the next decade.
In Ohio, that’s a large lift. The EPA estimates the state has 745,000 lead water lines — more than every other state except Illinois and Florida.
Removing those lines could cost upwards of $5 billion dollars, but a recent report from the policy analysis firm Scioto Analysis found doing so could save the state substantially more in the long run.
Why does Ohio have so many lead lines?
Ohio is home to about 3.6% of the nation’s population, but about 8% of the nation’s lead pipes.
“So not only do we have a large number of lead service lines, but we also have much more per capita than the country as a whole,” said Rob Moore, principal of Scioto Analysis.
Why are lead lines so common here?
“Ohio just got unlucky that it was really growing at the time when lead was super popular as a way to make service lines,” Moore said.
Most of those pipes are now at least 40 years old. (Congress enacted an amendment prohibiting the installation of new lead lines in the ‘80s.)
So, Moore says, at the very least, replacing those lines would result in fewer leaks. But the benefits don’t stop there.
Health benefits of replacing lead lines
“We've known that lead service lines impact health for a long time,” Moore said. “We've known since Benjamin Franklin was worrying about water runoff from lead roofs.”
But in the past century, research on the negative impacts of lead on cognitive and physical health has sharpened. It’s associated with increased rates of infant mortality, ADHD, dementia, depression, coronary heart disease and anemia. And it’s linked to lower IQ rates in children.
The EPA predicts replacing the nation’s lead pipes will prevent up to:
- 900,000 infants from having low birthweight.
- 2,600 children from developing ADHD.
- 1,500 cases of premature death from heart disease.
- 200,000 IQ points lost in children.
Economic benefits of replacing lead lines
Those health benefits have carry over effects on the economy, Moore said. For example, research shows a link between IQ test scores and future earnings.
“So we know that if we replace lead pipes, those people will have less lead exposure, higher IQs and higher earnings,” he said.
Likewise, reducing cases of ADHD, anemia and coronary heart disease would result in significant medical savings.
“Once we totaled up all of the benefits that would come from fewer infant deaths, higher IQ — and the earnings that would come from that down the road — medical spending from things like heart disease, depression, anemia, coronary heart disease, dementia and ADHD, the total benefits that we found were about $32 to $45 in benefits for every $1 in costs [to remove lead pipes],” Moore said.
Over the next 15 years, his team estimates that would amount to a net savings of between $145 and $185 billion for the state.
That’s a substantial savings, Moore said. So, although it will take time for the state to reap the economic benefits of the $5 billion upfront investment to replace the state’s lead pipes, his team believes it will be worth it in the long run.
