President Trump’s EPA head slams Massachusetts for sitting on $155M to replace lead pipes

President Donald Trump s EPA head is slamming U S Sen Ed Markey for asking for more federal funding to replace lead pipes in Massachusetts arguing that the state has yet to spend any of the over million it has already received EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is scorching the Massachusetts Democrat after Markey and the rest of the Bay State delegation requested the agency release funding for Fiscal Year claiming the feds are dragging their feet on the state s million allotment More confirmation Massachusetts doesn t send their brightest to the U S Senate Zeldin stated in a social media post last week in response to the delegation s request Anyone want to guess how much Massachusetts has spent of the MILLION in lead pipe replacement funding that it has received from the EPA since the start of Fiscal Year ZERO NOTHING ZILCH The request from the Bay State s all-Democrat delegation comes after Gov Maura Healey expressed concern over the funding delay in October Healey mentioned her administration paused a effort that distributes the federal money to communities to replace lead pipes These funds are critical to efforts in Massachusetts and around the country to protect population healthcare Markey wrote in the letter advance our shared goal of removing all lead arrangement lines for drinking water and provide certainty for communities worried about their water infrastructure investments The EPA requirements to release this funding now Markey added State officers say Massachusetts has provided over million to approximately communities and citizens water systems to identify and replace lead facility lines since Markey highlighted how states have been ordered to replace all water institution lines containing lead by following a rule that the EPA instituted under the Biden administration in October In the Biden-era Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Congress provided billion in dedicated lead pipe replacement funding allocated at billion annually from FY to Those funds Markey mentioned ensure that states and communities have predictable multi-year materials to plan and carry out this work If Ed Malarkey wants the EPA to release any more funding to Massachusetts for lead pipe replacement Zeldin stated in his social media post he will have to tell his state to submit a plan to us ASAP on how it is going to spend what it has received previously and is still sitting on The Trump EPA isn t messing around when it comes to TOTAL ACCOUNTABILITY of precious U S taxpayer dollars The Massachusetts delegation has requested that Zeldin respond to its letter by Dec with a timeline identifying when these Fiscal Year allotments will be distributed