The Environmental Protection Agency says its new lead and copper proposal will increase the number of lead service lines being replaced across the country, rather than decrease them as environmentalists have warned.
“We believe we’re on the right path to get the lead service lines replaced at at much faster rate,” EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said during remarks at an event in Green Bay, Wisconsin, announcing the agency’s new proposed rule. He was responding to criticism from environmental groups that the proposal would prompt water utilities that exceed the agency’s limit on lead levels in drinking water replace lead service lines at a slower pace than the prior rule.
Wheeler, though, said the old rule had included “off-ramps” that allowed water utilities to bypass replacing lines if they made changes to monitoring and other treatment options.
Under the EPA’s proposal, “once you hit the trigger, you can’t stop replacement,” Wheeler said. “So it is a permanent 3% per year, and it is going to get lead service lines replaced at a much higher level.”
The previous requirement had been a rate of replacement of 7% per year.
Wheeler added the agency is requiring for the first time that water suppliers replace connected lead service lines if a homeowner decides to replace theirs.
The EPA unveiled Thursday updates to the agency’s regulation targeting lead poisoning in drinking water, the first major changes to the rule in two decades.
“These are major new steps to protect the most vulnerable among us,” Wheeler said, adding the proposal would require water systems to act sooner to reduce lead levels in drinking water.
Lead is a heavy metal that had been used for decades in pipes and paint. The substance is known to cause learning disabilities, slower growth, and other health problems, particularly in children. If water isn’t treated properly and lead service pipes corrode, the metal can get into drinking water supplies.
The EPA proposal updates the 1991 lead and copper rule, which sets limits on lead levels in drinking water and outlines actions water utilities must take if systems exceed that level.
Wheeler said the EPA’s new proposal requires water systems to update a public inventory of lead service lines and to collect tap samples from homes with those lines.
The EPA proposal also sets a new “trigger level” of 10 parts per billion, meaning water systems would have to start taking action sooner to treat sources of lead. The regulation’s current action level is 15 parts per billion.
“It is great to hear that the EPA has proposed lead and copper rule standards that moves us toward better protection of our children,” said Karen Weaver, the mayor of Flint, Michigan, which suffered a water contamination crisis. “Of course, there is no safe level of lead, 10 ppb trigger level, moves us closer and I am especially relieved to see that our schools water systems will be tested and sampling methodology monitored for greater reliability.”
Environmental groups, though, said the proposal doesn’t go far enough. Groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council have urged the EPA to require replacement of all lead service lines.
Former EPA officials are also raising concern that the new “trigger level” appears to lack enforcement consequences.
“Realistically, what can we expect this new, undefined, never-before-seen trigger level to generate?” Betsy Southerland, former director of science and technology in the EPA’s water office, told the Washington Examiner. She added water utilities are already “cash-strapped” to take action when they exceed the 15 parts per billion limit.
Water utility groups, for their part, say they appreciate the EPA’s updates to the lead and copper regulation, though they’re reserving judgment on the rule until they’re able to review it.
“We look forward to continuing to work with the EPA and others in the drinking water industry through the rule development process,” Ruben Rodriguez, senior director of external communications for American Water, which represents investor-owned water utilities, said in a statement.
The EPA will take public comment on the rule for 60 days once it is published in the Federal Register. Wheeler said the agency intends to finalize the rule next summer.
