well every lead and galvanized water service line in New Jersey needs to be replaced over the next several years and now 10 Towns across the state are getting help from the Biden Administration to speed up the process of replacing those lines this week officials from the Federal Environmental Protection Agency dropped into the Garden State to announce a new partnership that'll remove the old pipes and ensure residents have access to Safe Drinking Water senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan has the story I go to bed with lead on the brain and I wake up the same way traton community organizer Cheryl Snider says like many Capitol City residents she had the drinking water service lines to her dad's home checked for lead last year amidst Trenton Waterworks effort to maintain quality standards it's also been working to replace the lead lines with maybe 20,000 to go it's critical work when I saw the pipe servicing my water like a straw I was Disturbed and sick to my stomach for years I was drinking and cooking with water that was coming from a corroded service line lead was leeching into the water coming to into our home we're in the second phase of of lead service line replacement and while our money is uh drying out we hope to get some federal assistance and and grant money so that we can finish the job Trenton's mayor isn't alone across New Jersey local water utilities face a state deadline to find and replace lead service Lines within the next eight years this week the EPA announced a lad service line replacement accelerators program that will help 10 New Jersey towns meet their goals Blackwood Camden Clementon East Newark Harrison kingburg Keyport New Brunswick Trenton and ventner New Brunswick's about 25% done it is painstaking um it is uh somewhat expensive uh and it is labor intensive Statewide New Jersey's got an estimated 143,000 lead service lines that need to be replaced and a million more of unknown composition money available to fix it the federal bipartisan infrastructure law set aside $ 15 billion We've Ended up with about 150 million approximately each of the last two years for New Jersey and that will continue it's not enough to just uh allocate resources for this you've got to help communities in being able to access the dollars you've got dated records from well over a hundred years ago that don't completely show you where all those lines are so we're investing resources to partner the water systems with a consultant that is going to help them hold their hand throughout the process and if you're a capacity stretched Community with a tiny budget the idea of just adding this one more task to your already long list of things local governments must do it might feel overwhelming so that's why we're going to help get it done for you tapping into the $5 billion Federal infrastructure fund requires towns to collect data how many lead service lines do they have to replace where are they and what's the plan the EPA accelerator program literally is going to provide the knowhow on how to help smaller communities that know they have a problem but aren't sure on where it is and don't have the funding to be able to fix Le service lines New Jersey's one of four States including Pennsylvania Connecticut and Wisconsin participating in the EPA accelerator program The Fast Track includes persuading folks to sign up check their pipes and upload information towns can use to map out a plan you can't just tell people to do these things you have to be there with the people going through these things showing them talking them and educating letting know why they're doing this Schneider works with the East Trenton collaborative and explains to families that there's no safe lead levels especially for kids inie brenwick I'm Brenda Flanagan, NJ Spotlight News NJ Spotlight News