The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill signed by President Joe Biden last year included $15 billion to remove lead service lines but a new report says that New Jersey will receive the second-lowest amount of money per lead pipe in the nation in the first round of funding. According to the report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, New Jersey has an estimated 350,000 lead service lines and is getting just over $48 million. That averages out to $138 per pipe — second-lowest to Ohio, at $109.
The discovery has led some in New Jersey’s congressional delegation to urge the Biden administration to change the allocation formula and in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency call the funding “an absurd disparity” and “unacceptable.”
