EPA proposes rule to tighten lead pipeline standards

By Breanne Deppisch

Published November 30, 2023 11:00am ET

In this Sept. 21, 2017, photo, a sign on a door of the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington. The EPA says it has recovered 517 containers of âunidentified, potentially hazardous materialâ from highly contaminated toxic waste sites in Texas that flooded last month during Hurricane Harvey. But the agency has not provided details about which Superfund sites the material came from, why the contaminants at issue have not been identified and whether thereâs a threat to human health. | (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

The Environmental Protection Agency proposed a new rule Thursday aimed at strengthening its existing lead and copper pipe standards as part of the administration’s goal of lowering unsafe pollution levels and protecting vulnerable people from exposure to harmful drinking water.