CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Clean water is essential, and while it is something we use every day, most of us give no thought to how it gets to our faucets.
But according to the Environmental Protection Agency, we should.
This week, they released their assessment of the pipes that bring that drinking water to our homes, our offices and our schools and the results are eye-opening.
The first-of-its-kind report discovered that more than 647,000 of the water lines in our state are made of lead, and fixing that is going to come with a hefty price tag.
“Texas has the fifth highest amount of lead pipes still in use in the United States," said ‘Inside Texas Politics’ Host Jason Whitely. "Florida is first, but in Texas, about 7 percent of its entire system is lead pipes.”
Keep in mind that lead water pipes were banned by law in 1986 because those pipes start to decay and crumble, introducing lead into our drinking water.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, there are no safe blood-lead levels -- especially for children -- and the effects of lead poisoning can be permanent and disabling.
The EPA has also given an estimate on what it would take to remedy this situation.
“Replacing them all in this state, alone, is going to cost $60 billion,” he said.
President Joe Biden has said that, based on this report, he wants to get rid of all lead water pipes over the next decade, something that would take a lot of money and planning to accomplish.
Corpus Christi Water oversees more than 1,600 miles of pipes.
We asked them for an update Thursday on how many of those pipes still need to be replaced over lead concerns.
CCW refused our requests for an answer, saying they are working on a new report and did not want to give outdated information.
That new report is scheduled to come out at the end of April.