"A string of unexpected impediments could delay the administration’s timeline on an issue that is central to its effort to address racial disparities."

"In her basement on the South Side of Chicago, Crystal Vance beamed a flashlight onto the water source for her home: a rusted and leaking lead pipe.

Ms. Vance, 35, knows well the dangers of lead contamination. Her 5-year-old son tested for elevated levels of lead as a baby, something that still weighs on her conscience.

“I felt like my body was poisoned,” she said. “And I was feeding my kid this poison.”

But getting rid of the lead pipes snaking through her home — and through schools, offices, homes and day care centers around the country — has proved to be enormously complex, even after President Biden promised early in his administration to remove every lead pipe in America by 2031.

The reasons are a mixture of financial, logistical and even semantic concerns, according to interviews with more than a dozen residents, environmental activists, and local and federal officials."

Zolan Kanno-Youngs reports for the New York Times September 30, 2023. [2]