December 16, 2024
By Chelsea Kirk, Director of Policy and Research for Building Equity and Transit, SAJE
Today–December 16, 2024–marks the 50th anniversary of the Safe Drinking Water Act, the landmark federal law that empowered the Environmental Protection Agency to set safety standards for the nation’s water providers. Since its passage, the law has necessitated billions of dollars of state and local spending to ensure providers are in compliance. Over the past five years alone, the California Water Resources Control Board has dispensed more than $831 million in grants to improve drinking water safety in disadvantaged communities around the state, and the agency estimates it will need to spend nearly $12 billion more through 2030.
In Los Angeles, most drinking water is provided by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), the nation’s largest municipally owned utility. Big public investments in water safety regularly have ensured LADWP water quality surpasses both federal and state standards. The utility estimates they have spent more than $1.5 billion just on strategies to keep area reservoirs shielded from harmful contaminants.
Having a utility that prioritizes the public good over profits has insulated Angelenos from some of the worst outcomes seen in localities with privatized water supplies. In Compton in 2019, for example, Los Angeles County officials intervened to shut down the privately run Sativa Los Angeles County Water District after years of complaints about brown tap water and evidence pipes were leaching manganese into the water supply.
But public investment can only do so much to keep drinking water clean. That’s because LADWP’s ability to regulate water quality ends where private property lines begin. And for Los Angeles’ two million renter households, this gap in the regulatory pipeline presents a serious threat to water safety.
The condition of a property’s plumbing system—hot and cold water pipes, water heaters, fixtures, and drains—significantly affects water quality. Poorly maintained premise plumbing can result in corroded or leaky pipes, which can release harmful metals or bring outside contaminants into drinking water. Unfortunately, the majority of LADWP’s water contamination cases stem from premise plumbing issues, which the property owner is responsible for.
The presence of lead in water lines is a pervasive problem throughout the U.S. Lead enters tap water through two primary avenues: older pipes and faucets made with lead materials or copper pipes connected via lead-based solder. Lead pipes were commonly used until 1986, when they were banned by the federal government. LADWP was one of the first utilities to incorporate a lead-free standard for water infrastructure; between 1978 and 2006, the utility cement-lined more than 2,600 miles of iron pipes and implemented a program to control pipe corrosion.
But the majority of housing in Los Angeles was built before 1979. So unless the property owner has upgraded the premise plumbing system—and the city has no policies that mandate that—these aging homes and buildings are likely to have lead pipes. Just this week, the Better Watts Initiative published a report on how years of infrastructure neglect in Watts’ public housing has caused lead contamination in at least 20 households.
Agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization agree there is no safe amount of lead exposure. In particular, lead poses serious health risks to children; even minimal amounts of lead in drinking water can detrimentally affect cognitive development, causing behavioral and learning difficulties, stunted growth, and impaired hearing.
Unfortunately, renters have limited information about, and no control over, their premise plumbing. Moreover, it is common for landlords, not renters, to pay water bills, which makes it harder for renters to access important information or have direct lines of communication with municipal water providers. The city does have a Systematic Code Enforcement Program (SCEP), administered by the Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD), that inspects rental units every four years to ensure they meet building code standards and that plumbing, electricity, and gas systems are “in good working order.” But SCEP does not conduct routine and proactive tap water testing.
So what can be done? LAHD already has a Lead Hazard Mediation Program that helps landlords rid their buildings of lead paint. The department could consider a similar, means-tested program for small landlords using federal money California has so far been leaving on the table because of a lack of data on premise plumbing conditions. And, the Los Angeles City Council is currently considering a motion to strengthen SCEP—why not also consider adding health and safety standards for premise plumbing to ensure Angelenos have access to the clean water we’ve invested so much in?
LADWP has spent many years and millions of public dollars ensuring we have clean tap water. It would be a shame to have that safety undermined by low-road landlords who are neglecting premise plumbing and their obligation to provide safe and healthy housing.
