(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
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Nunn announces bill to release funding for lead pipe replacement • Iowa Capital Dispatch [1]
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Date: 2025-07-30
U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn announced legislation Wednesday to assist communities with the replacement of lead service lines, including the more than 20,000 lines in Des Moines.
Nunn made the announcement during a news conference at Des Moines Water Works in his home district. The city’s utility also announced the start of its lead service line replacement program, the first phase of which will tackle connections at about 400 homes in the Drake neighborhood.
Nunn’s bill aims to make previously allocated funding for lead service line replacement more accessible to communities in need. Newly appointed CEO of Des Moines Water Works Amy Kahler said this will make it “easier to replace these lines with fewer financial impacts to customers.”
Kahler said without federal support, it would cost Des Moines Water Works an estimated $200 million to replace all of the lead service lines in the metro, which would increase utility rates for customers by around 30%.
The Biden administration dedicated $15 billion to replacing lead service lines via the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. In October 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a final rule that required drinking water systems to identify and replace all lead pipes within a 10-year span.
The funds were allocated to the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund from which states, with a 20% match, would receive a 30-year loan to replace the lead service lines. Disadvantaged communities would have 40 years to repay the loans, according to information from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“Some water utilities have been hesitant to access this funding because they are taking on half of the cost of the replacement and having to incorporate that in their water rates,” Kahler said.
Nunn’s bill would allocate these funds to disadvantaged census tracts via grants or forgivable loans and without some of the required local matches.
“Oftentimes D.C. red tape, bureaucratic requirements, additional stipulations from cities to provide matching dollars — dollars that they do not have — means that those communities in the most need are the last ones serviced by this program,” Nunn said of the current funding model.
Nunn introduced a similar bill last year, also in collaboration with Democratic Rep. Emilia Sykes from Ohio, which did not advance.
“It provides clean water delivered through a process that our local communities can actually access, they can get down to the business of helping folks in need,” Nunn said.
Across the U.S., there are an estimated 9.2 million lead service lines. According to a 2023 EPA report, Iowa has an estimated 90,000 service lines with lead in them.
Exposure to lead in drinking water is especially harmful to children and infants, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and can lead to decreased cognitive performance or developmental issues.
Service lines connect from water mains to an individual property. This means those lines only affect the individual property, not the entire water supply, though Kahler said lead pipes are “a liability as long as they are in the ground.”
These lines are not owned by the city or utilities, which means property owners are usually responsible for the often costly burden of replacing the pipes. Kahler said the 400-home project in the Drake Neighborhood has a project cost of about $4 million, only these home owners will not have to foot the bill due to the federal funding.
Des Moines Mayor Connie Boesen said the replacement programs were “essential” to bettering Des Moines without burdening residents, and she encouraged eligible households to take advantage of the opportunity.
“While residents may replace their lines at any time they wish, it is not always financially feasible,” Boesen said. “This program eases the financial worries of residents and allows Des Moines Water Works to be proactive in their efforts to continue to provide safe and clean drinking water for all residents.”
Kahler said the Drake neighborhood project is projected to start in the late fall and could stretch through much of 2026 before the next phase is announced in a new neighborhood.
According to Kahler, the EPA 10-year timeline to remove all lead pipes begins in 2027, so Des Moines Water Works is getting an “early start.”
Nunn said the utility has become a “model” for the rest of the country on solutions to clean water.
Nunn also commented on the recent attention to high concentrations of nitrate in the water supplies in Iowa and said it is important to not put the “blame just on ag.”
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