EPA Gets Pushback On Effort To Reveal Lead Pipes

The U.S. EPA is off to a rocky start in its new effort to bring transparency to where lead service lines are in use in the water system.

The agency has called on states and water utilities to put more information about lead pipes online, but some officials are fighting the possibility. The USA Today Network reviewed documents from 49 states and found a range of concerns from officials.

“Drinking water regulators in about a dozen states expressed varying degrees of resistance or concerns about the EPA’s directive encouraging water systems to voluntarily give consumers easy access to what utilities know about homes receiving drinking water through lead service lines, a key indicator of whether a home's tap water could be contaminated and whether utilities are complying with testing regulations,” the report said.

South Dakota’s water regulatory agency was among the dissenting voices.

“We do not have the initial materials inventory from systems readily available and do not intend to spend valuable staff resources sifting through microfilm to find this information,” officials wrote.

Nevertheless, the EPA has supporters in this effort. Yanna Lambrinidou, a drinking water safety watchdog and faculty member at Virginia Tech, weighed in positively, calling the EPA’s request “critically important.”

“She called resistance expressed by some states ‘highly troubling’ and an impediment to the public knowing whether utilities are testing water from the right customers’ taps, meaning those with the lead service lines that are most likely to have lead-contaminated water,” the report said.

The EPA sent a letter to governors and water regulators in February pledging to take a more active role in state water programs.

“The EPA's Office of Water is increasing oversight of state programs to identify and address any deficiencies in current implementation of the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR),” said the letter from Joel Beauvais, deputy assistant administrator.

“EPA staff are meeting with every state drinking water program across the country to ensure that states are taking appropriate actions to address lead action level exceedances, including optimizing corrosion control, providing effective public health communication and outreach to residents on steps to reduce exposures to lead, and removing lead service lines where required by the LCR,” the letter continued.

Lead contamination of drinking water is a major concern since the crisis in Flint, MI, this year. The issue was thrust into the national news when the governor declared a state of emergency over a lead contamination catastrophe that is taking a toll on public health.

One study “found elevated lead blood levels — surpassing 5 micrograms per deciliter — in 4 percent of Flint youngsters,” ThinkProgress reported.

For similar stories visit Water Online’s Drinking Water Regulations And Legislation Solutions Center.