Judith Enck: Chicago must choose lead pipe replacement material carefully
Judith Enck | December 13, 2023 | Chicago Tribune
I applaud the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to mandate the removal of lead pipes used for drinking water nationwide. A Michigan State University professor and pediatrician was widely quoted in recent articles saying, “This is like a pediatrician’s dream come true.”
But the Biden administration must ensure that we don’t swap one problematic material for another. Polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, pipes will undoubtedly be considered as a replacement for lead pipes in Chicago and elsewhere, and they come with their own serious concerns.
PVC is the worst of the worst plastics. As with all plastic products, PVC and CPVC (chlorinated polyvinyl chloride) contain many chemical additives, some of which are known to be toxic to humans and many of which have yet to be tested for their safety. The former includes vinyl chloride, a known human carcinogen for which there is no safe level of exposure.
Just as the chemicals in food packaging can leach into food and beverages, the chemicals in PVC and CPVC pipes and their fittings can leach into drinking water, including endocrine-disrupting chemicals that can harm children and developing fetuses at very low levels. Additionally, there are no existing drinking water standards that factor in the cumulative burden of exposure to these chemical mixtures. Chemical leaching also has been found to vary by product formulation, and manufacturers are not required to disclose the chemical ingredients of their pipes, nor report their chemical release testing data.
PVC plastic is enough of a health concern that even some of the largest consumer goods companies are shifting away from it. In January 2022, the U.S. Plastics Pact — a group of 100 major consumer companies, including Walmart, Target, Unilever, Keurig Dr Pepper, and General Mills — made a voluntary commitment to stop using PVC in their plastic packaging by 2025.
If PVC isn’t safe enough for consumer packaging, why should it still be delivering the water we drink every day to our homes? In the absence of guidance from the EPA, Beyond Plastics investigated the risks of PVC pipes and shared its findings in a report earlier this year. The findings were concerning enough for our organization to recommend that local governments avoid using PVC plastic as a replacement for lead pipes.
On top of the toxic chemicals released by PVC and CPVC pipes into drinking water, PVC poses health risks to the public when it burns, when it’s manufactured and when it’s transported. Thermal degradation, such as from wildfires, can cause PVC and CPVC pipes to release hazardous chemicals, such as cancer-causing benzene and styrene, at levels above what the EPA considers safe. Communities can lose access to safe drinking water for months or more following a wildfire. Additionally, when the vinyl chloride in PVC burns, dioxins — the most dangerous chemicals known to science — may be released, which is why PVC is considered a significant threat to the health of firefighters.
“This is a public health concern that has unfortunately spanned generations and an issue that has disproportionately affected low-income communities,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in discussing the EPA’s decision to eliminate the nation’s lead service lines.
Like lead, PVC plastic’s health impacts are also an environmental justice issue. PVC pipes are manufactured in a multistep process that uses and releases toxic chemicals at every stage, threatening adjacent communities. Many of those are low-income communities or communities of color in the Gulf Coast and Appalachian regions.
Additionally, February’s train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, gave Americans a vivid look at what can happen when vinyl chloride, used to make PVC, is transported through vulnerable communities — with many residents still struggling nine months later. Five of the train cars that were purposefully set on fire contained vinyl chloride, the chemical mostly used to make PVC plastic.
There are alternatives to PVC plastic pipes, such as stainless steel and recycled copper, that aren’t peppered with health concerns. Newark, New Jersey, recently replaced nearly all its 23,000 lead service lines within three years using copper pipes. Troy, New York, is in the process of doing the same. The largest city in the country, New York City, actually prohibits the use of PVC plastic pipes for drinking water pipes. Chicago should do the same.
It’s a massive, expensive — but absolutely necessary — undertaking to replace all of our nation’s lead service lines. Once the new pipes are installed, people will be getting their water from them for decades. The EPA needs to ensure we don’t leap from the frying pan into the fire by replacing lead pipes with another material that threatens the health of Americans. It’s critical we get it right this time.
Judith Enck is a former EPA regional administrator, the president of Beyond Plastics, and sits on the faculty at Bennington College.
