GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Turning on the tap for a glass of water should be done without worry, but some homes in Grand Rapids are still connected to old lead lines, which poses a potential risk.
Local leaders and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a new $5 million grant Wednesday that will help local homeowners one lead line at a time.
For nine years, Paige Biek and her family have lived in a home on Elliot Street in Grand Rapids. When they purchased the home, they thought the lead lines had been replaced.
"We never thought there was a concern for anything, for our kiddo," Biek told FOX 17.
But they later discovered, that wasn't the case.
"We literally got a letter in the mail from the city of Grand Rapids saying 'we think that you might have a lead connection. Please follow these steps, and let us know if you meet these parameters.'"
Biek says the city later came out, ran some tests and discovered there was, in fact, lead present.
For years, she and her family took precautions, while also worrying about her daughter.
"We've always had a Brita filter in our fridge, so all our drinking water has been filtered but not necessarily our cooking water," she added. Biek said, despite her worries, "I know from her pediatrician, checkups, that she's still healthy and her brain's good."
Biek's home finally got its new copper lines on Wednesday.
"The science has been clear for decades, there's absolutely no acceptable level of lead, especially not for our children," EPA Director Michael Regan said while in Grand Rapids Wednesday to make the grant announcement.
"This administration has committed to removing 100% of the lead service lines as quickly as possible, so that everyone in this country can turn on their tap water, pour a glass and feel confident that it's safe to drink their water," Regan added.
Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss says they city has been replacing lines since 2017 voluntarily— this additional funding will help accelerate those repairs.
"We have over 21,000 lead service lines here in our city, with more than half of them located in our neighborhoods of focus, and our goal and our plan that we set out to accomplish back in 2017 is the full replacement of all lead service lines."
Grand Rapids plans to replace 2,000 lines this year alone.
"It's not all the time you see investment in your community happening literally right in front of your eyes. We often see these huge construction projects, but doing a press conference here today [Wednesday] to show our tax dollars at work in our own neighborhoods is so important," Congresswoman Hillary Scholten said.
Biek says it's gratifying to see this being done right in her own backyard, adding, "I'm so glad that other families are going to be able to get this as well, because this was a worry that I didn't think I really had to have and now I'm glad that I don't have to have it at all."
EPA Director Regan says the federal government has dedicated $14 billion to replacing lead lines nationwide— $73 million of that will go to the state of Michigan to replace roughly 450,000 lines.
The funding comes from the Biden Administration's bipartisan infrastructure plan, approved back in 2021.
