The long and complicated — and expensive — effort to replace lead lines in the U.S.

Cincinnati's public water utility is on a years-long effort to replace its lead service lines. They began in 2016 following the crisis in Flint, Michigan.

Transcript

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

The crisis in Flint, Michigan, prompted the water utility in Cincinnati, Ohio, to begin replacing its lead service lines eight years ago. Now the Environmental Protection Agency has ordered the nationwide replacement of the country's 9 million lead lines. They want it done in the next 10 years. That is expensive and complicated, as Becca Costello from member station WVXU reports.

(SOUNDBITE OF SAWING)

BECCA COSTELLO, BYLINE: The crew from Greater Cincinnati Water Works digs a hole about 5 feet deep. No buried treasure here. Crew leader Dwayne Wallace Sr. points out how to identify the pipe they need to remove.

DWAYNE WALLACE SR: Brass is yellow. Copper is bronze or brown. Galvanized is gray. Lead is silver, or it can be gray, too.

COSTELLO: And anything except copper you've got to take out.

WALLACE: Got to take out.

COSTELLO: Cincinnati resident Elizabeth Gardner's house is over a hundred years old, and the lead pipes were replaced earlier this year. She says this kind of effort is well worth it.

ELIZABETH GARDNER: I don't want anybody to have lead in their water. And if I can turn on the faucet, and there's good, clean water coming out, that's worth a lot of money.

COSTELLO: Many utilities say the EPA's new 10-year deadline will be tough to meet. Greater Cincinnati Water Works - the public utility - got started in 2016. Executive director Cathy Bailey says there are still 45,000 lead lines in the city to be replaced.

CATHY BAILEY: We finally got to a point where we're doing about 1,200 per year. We thought that was, like, a big deal and a good thing that we were getting to 1,200. But now we realize we need to get to 3,600, and so there's going to be a significant ramp-up to that.

COSTELLO: Bailey says it will cost $200 million to replace the remaining lead lines. That cost is divided between Greater Cincinnati Water Works and its rate-payers. The city is applying for state and federal grants to help offset the cost, but Bailey says so are all the other utilities facing the same tight deadlines.

BAILEY: We also recognize that it's not just for us - it's for Cleveland and Columbus and Toledo and Akron and all these other cities in between.

COSTELLO: The new regulations require utilities to consider equity as they prioritize replacing their lead service lines. In order to do that, the city turned to University of Cincinnati professor Christopher Auffrey to create a model.

CHRISTOPHER AUFFREY: They emphasize that social justice criterion were very important to them. They wanted to make sure those people that were most vulnerable, at greatest risk - their lines would be prioritized in terms of replacement.

COSTELLO: Auffrey and his team have prioritized replacement zones by using zip codes where children have high lead levels. Lead poisoning damages the development of children's brains. The team, in addition, looks at data like poverty levels and identifies food deserts.

AUFFREY: As stewards of the public money, they want to be as efficient as possible as well. And so they said, well, we want to aggregate these and be able to do multiple line replacements at a time.

COSTELLO: No word yet on what the incoming presidential administration's policy will be regarding the replacement of lead lines. Regardless, Greater Cincinnati Water Works says its work will continue.

(SOUNDBITE OF TOOLS CLINKING)

COSTELLO: Crew leader Dwayne Wallace Sr. wraps up one replacement.

WALLACE: Roll out me some of that copper. Get me about an 8-foot piece ready.

COSTELLO: That's one lead line down, another 45,000 to go.

For NPR News, I'm Becca Costello in Cincinnati. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.