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SALT LAKE CITY — Representatives from the Biden Administration, including U.S. second gentleman Doug Emhoff, visited with Salt Lake leaders Friday to tout federal investment in the workforce and clean drinking water in Salt Lake City.
Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, joined Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall and Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson at the City Creek Water Treatment Plant in Salt Lake City Friday afternoon to announce a $39 million federal loan to help the city identify and replace lead pipes throughout the city's drinking water system over the next five years.
"Over 9 million homes, day cares and businesses (in the U.S.) receive their water through toxic lead pipes," Emhoff said. "All of this is unacceptable, and all of this must change. We know that access to clean water can literally be the difference between life and death."
Salt Lake City utilities deliver lead-free water to residents, and the majority of remaining lead pipes are on private property. The federal loans will boost the city's Lead and Copper Program to help identify lead in pipes — with a particular focus on disadvantaged communities.
With the 2024 general election ramping up, Emhoff traveled to Utah as a surrogate for President Joe Biden to bring attention to federal COVID-19 relief funds and infrastructure spending passed during Biden's presidency. Federal funds will also be used to upgrade the City Creek Water Treatment Plant, which provides drinking water to over 300,000 Salt Lake County residents.
"Safe, clean drinking water is foundational for the health of our residents, and our ability to survive as a city," Mendenhall said.
Investment in 'human capital'
Tom Perez, a senior White House adviser and director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, spent the day with Wilson to highlight local programs funded through the American Rescue Plan Act, including the drinking water initiatives and a county program to promote apprenticeships and trades. Perez and Wilson toured a sheet metal training center in West Valley City in the morning, where members of the Local 312 union were training up-and-coming metal workers.
Salt Lake County's Cox/Granato Pre-Apprenticeship Program is funded with $2.8 million from the American Rescue Plan Act, with the goal of helping 240 aspiring tradespeople receive training and financial assistance.
It has already helped 25 recipients since it began last summer, including McKinzie Taylor, a single mother who was accepted to the Utah Training Electrical Alliance on Friday.
The program has also helped Antonia Dawes look for apprentice work after leaving the workforce for several years to stay at home and raise her children.
"I never looked at that as an opportunity or thought that was a path I wanted to take," she said. "I have brothers, and I was never shown that that would be a route or an opportunity to take."
Perez — who served as labor secretary during the Obama administration — praised the current president for his pro-union stance, as the only sitting president to walk a picket line.
"The reason why he invests in programs like this, the reason why his middle name is 'Union,' is because he understands that unions are pathways to the middle class," he said of Biden.
Perez went on to say he was proud of Wilson and other local leaders for investing pandemic aid in "human capital."
"The most precious resource we have in any community is our human capital," Perez said. "You not only are entering a great profession, but ... a profession that has a brotherhood and a sisterhood that will always have your back. ... And you know who else is with you? President Joe Biden."
Wilson said she doesn't ignore the hardship endured during the pandemic, but said programs like the pre-apprenticeship programs are "silver linings" that were made possible by the response.
"We look at the needs of the housing crisis ... and know that if we can capture willing, committed people who have had challenges earlier in life and put them in the first step process — which is those basic pre-apprenticeship skills — we're going to be handing off amazing people to each of your unions so that they can thrive and foster," she said.
