As you know, elevated blood lead levels in children are associated with hearing loss, lower IQs, developmental delays, behavioral changes, and mental health impacts like anxiety and depression. Wisconsin still has over 170,000 service lines that contain lead or galvanized material spanning across nearly every corner of the state.
These Lead and Copper Rule Improvements will go a long way to help address these challenges. They add to a long list of safe drinking water achievements that will be part of President Biden and Vice President Harris’s safe drinking water legacy. Those achievements include funding that supported more than 650 private well owners, a more-than $900 million investment in our municipal drinking water infrastructure, and the first new federal drinking water standards in 27 years.
This progress didn’t just happen. It took work to elect Pres. Biden and bring public health-based leadership back to the EPA. And once we did, we didn’t stop fighting. Earlier this year, we testified before the EPA with support from 250 Wisconsin Conservation Voters members and coordinated a sign-on letter with 36 conservation champions in the Wisconsin legislature – joining tens of thousands of people across the country in demonstrating the need for these improvements.
This is why your voice matters – you helped make this happen!
When you write postcards, send texts, make phone calls, knock doors and cast your vote for pro-conservation champions, you help move progress from a dream to an opportunity. And when you add your name to a petition, sign onto a letter of support, write your legislator, and show up to conservation lobby day, you help move progress from an opportunity to a reality.
In his speech, President Biden asked, “What’s a government for if it cannot protect the public health?” We couldn’t agree more, and that’s why we continue to fight for a pro-conservation government that will put public health first. We have a lot of work to do to build on this progress and fully tackle nitrate, lead, and PFAS contamination across Wisconsin. That’s why we’re fighting for a pro-conservation legislature that can help get it done.
