Inadequate Execution of the 7th DWINSA Lead Service Line Questionnaire Led to Flawed Data Being Used to Allot Lead Service Line Replacement Funds

The design and execution of the 7th Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment did not result in allotments of lead service line, or LSL, funds that accurately reflected the LSL replacement needs in each state. The EPA used the responses to the survey's supplemental LSL questionnaire to project how many LSLs each state had, a number that it then used to determine how to allot the approximately $2.8 billion of LSL replacement funds provided by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, or IIJA, for fiscal year 2023. The LSL questionnaire, however, was originally designed to only estimate LSL replacement costs, not to allot billions of dollars of IIJA LSL funds. As such, it lacked the rigorous internal controls needed to ensure data quality and reliability, and the EPA did not implement the needed internal controls after the purpose of the LSL questionnaire expanded.