A Decade After Flint, the Lead-Pipe Reckoning Goes National
New federal rules require most U.S. cities to rip out their lead service lines. Nine million remain in the ground.
By AGUACYCLE News Room
The Flint water crisis exposed a national problem hiding in plain sight: millions of homes are still connected to water mains by lead pipes. Now the EPA's strengthened Lead and Copper Rule requires most utilities to replace them within a decade.
The scale of the problem
An estimated 9 million lead service lines remain in use across the country, concentrated in older industrial cities of the Midwest and Northeast. Replacement is the only permanent fix — corrosion control only manages the risk.
Paying for it
Federal infrastructure funds are helping cities inventory and replace lines, but the cost is enormous and uneven. Affordability advocates warn utilities not to pass the bill to the households least able to pay.
Keep reading
Mapping America's Worst Drinking-Water Violations
Oklahoma's water systems break the rules at the highest rate in the country, while Texas racks up the most violations by sheer volume. The gap between those two numbers is the whole story.
Read analysisLead in American Tap Water: What the 2026 Data Shows
More than a thousand U.S. water systems still deliver tap water above the federal lead action level — and two states account for more than half of them.
Read analysisLake Erie's Toxic Algae Is Back. Toledo Is Watching the Water.
A decade after a bloom shut off a half-million people's tap water, nutrient pollution keeps fueling summer outbreaks across the Great Lakes.
Read analysis