EPA's Independent Science Board Urges Stronger Lead Prevention
For years, concerns around lead contamination in drinking water caused by outdated infrastructure have been spreading around the U.S. In 2015, for instance, a public health emergency declared in Flint, MI, drew national attention to the issue. Now, advocates within the country’s primary drinking water regulator are calling for more action to curb the problem.
“At a hearing of the EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB), both members and others from environment and public health groups said the agency should do more to replace the lead service lines that connect an estimated 6 million houses to the water main, contaminating water as it runs through pipes,” The Hill reported.
An EPA proposal from October 2019 did not lower its 15-ppb lead action threshold as many advocates have called for, but it would have introduced a 10-ppb “trigger level” to push cities to take treatment measures to counter lead. Many have argued that the proposed rule also does not go far enough in requiring the replacement of lead-based drinking water infrastructure.
“In its latest report, the SAB came out against the proposed trigger level, saying it ‘adds unnecessary complexity resulting from having to make lead management decisions’ while not enacting stricter limits that recognize there is no safe level of lead,” per The Hill. “Part of the fear expressed by health advocates is that the EPA plan would lead to more partial replacements of lead service lines, where cities replace those on the city side of the property line but leave homeowners to foot the bill to replace those from the sidewalk to the house.”
It’s not immediately evident how the dissension might affect the EPA’s actual rulemaking or any future action to curb lead contamination in drinking water. But it is apparent that criticism about the current and proposed rules isn’t going anywhere.
“Industry won,” retired EPA scientist Miguel Del Toral said of the proposed rule, according to a report from WNYC. “I mean it’s pretty clear when you look at what we were trying to do, where we were trying to go and where we ended up in this proposal; it’s pretty clear who the winners are and it’s not the people.”
To read more about the rules that determine federally acceptable lead levels in drinking water, visit Water Online’s Regulations And Legislation Solutions Center.