Lead Service Lines/Cost Benefit Analysis: Natural Resource Defense Council Issues Report

The National Resource Defense Council (“NRDC”) published an October 2023 report titled:

Getting the Lead Out – Removing Lead Pipes Would Yield Hundreds of Billions of Dollars in Health Benefits (“Report”)

The NRDC Report argues that the significant cost of removing lead service lines would be outweighed by greater benefits derived from reduction in public health issues.

The Report put forth calculations for what it believes would be saved monetarily from avoided health impacts. It concludes that over the next 35 years the United States could save an estimated $686 billion in health costs.

Citing a Harvard School of Public Health analysis, the benefit of eliminating exposure to lead pipes is stated to include:

Benefits for Children

• Reduced short-term damage to cognitive function
• Reduced behavioral problems (such as impulsivity, attention deficits and hyperactivity/ADHD) and reduced conduct problems (such as aggressive conduct disorders)
• Reduced hearing impairment

Benefits for Adults

• Reduced hypertension (high blood pressure)
• Reduced coronary heart disease
• Reduced mortality from cardiovascular disease
• Reduced preterm births
• Reduced harm to the male reproductive system
• Reduced depression, ADHD, and dementia
• Reduced risk of lung cancer

Lifetime Benefits

• Reduced immunological damage and asthma
• Reduced harm to red blood cells/altered heme synthesis leading to anemia
• Reduced developmental problems

State-by-state estimates of benefits of full lead service line replacement (2016 $) discounted to present value are provided.

In the case of Arkansas, the following figures are provided:

• NRDC 2021 estimate of lead service lines (40,000)
• Estimated benefits in $ of lead service line removal using NRDC estimate of lead service lines ($3,420,000,000)
• EPA 2023 estimate of lead service lines (171,771)
• Estimated benefits in $ of lead service line removal using EPA estimate of lead service lines ($14,686,420,500)

A copy of the Report can be downloaded here.