Wheeler, who was confirmed by the Senate on Feb. 28 to lead the EPA, explained his stance in an exclusive interview with the Journal-News.
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“The water issues are solvable,” Wheeler said. “We know what it takes to provide safe drinking water to people.”
Safe drinking water isn’t a concern for Butler County communities, local officials said.
Communities here worry about water main breaks and corroding, aging pipes, officials said. Wheeler said a federal EPA loan program, which is in its second year, has assisted seven cities across the country and could help Butler County and southwest Ohio communities replace their aging infrastructure.
The low-cost, long-term loans through the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act will leverage $1.8 billion to fund $3.8 billion in projects this year. Wheeler said 39 communities have been invited to apply this summer for funds that will help collectively finance more than $10 billion in projects next year.
Communities around Butler County are investing in underground infrastructure, officials said. Fairfield will spend more than $2 million this year in water main replacement, and Butler County has a $1 million project underway on Jerry Drive in West Chester Twp. to replace 8,600 feet of water main.
Butler County Water and Sewer Director Martha Shelby said her agency has four construction projects planned over the next two years to replace an estimated 33,000 feet of water main.
But the federal agency will also undertake this year an update to the EPA's Lead and Copper Rule, which hasn't been updated in two decades. Wheeler said his goal is to remove lead and copper pipes from all communities.
“We don’t know where all the lead and copper lines are,” he said. “The first thing we’re going to do is to catalog where they are, and I’ve challenged our staff to come up with more innovative ways of testing and predicting where corrosive pipes might be so we can identify which pipes need to be replaced first.”
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Fairfield and Butler County water and sewer departments confirmed they do not have lead and copper pipes in their system.
“This is an issue for communities like the city of Cincinnati,” said Fairfield Public Utilities Director Adam Sackenheim, who worked nearly a year at Cincinnati’s departments of water and sewers. “I’m 100 percent supportive of the U.S. EPA, Ohio EPA, to fund the lead and copper line replacement program.”
The Journal-News contacted the cities of Hamilton and Middletown but didn’t receive a response before deadline.
Local governments are only responsible for water lines in the public right-of-way so “that isn’t any good for a resident because they may have 50 feet of service line,” and may not have the means to replace it, he said.
Communities like Fairfield, which didn’t form until the 1950s, don’t have lead and copper pipes as they were phased out at that point, Sackenheim said.
Wheeler said once lead and copper pipe locations are identified, it could take 20 to 30 years to replace them. But he wants to make sure the most corrosive pipes are tackled first, and those more impoverished and at-risk communities are assisted before the more affluent communities.
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