Duckworth, Booker, Tlaib, Dingell Lead Colleagues in Urging EPA to Strengthen Lead and Copper Rule Improvements Proposal
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), co-founders of the new Senate Lead Task Force and the U.S. Senate Environmental Justice Caucus, alongside U.S. Representatives Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-12) and Debbie Dingell (D-MI-06), co-chairs of the House ‘Get the Lead Out’ Caucus, led 86 of their colleagues in applauding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for their proposed Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI) while also urging them to strengthen the rule by considering additional provisions that would improve and expedite the Biden Administration’s effort to remove all lead service lines from our nation.
“While we recognize the challenges for some municipalities to remove thousands of lead pipes in 10 years, the proposal could allow another generation of children in many communities to be exposed to lead from their tap water,” wrote the members. “Some cities have been able to replace tens of thousands of lead pipes in just a few years, creating good living wage jobs while providing enormous benefits to the community.”
“As part of the replacement provisions, the final rule should clearly ensure that individual property owners do not have to pay for lead service line replacement,” the members continued. “We have seen that when utilities charge individual property owners for lead service line removal, often low-income homeowners are unable to pay and landlords refuse to pay. This leaves disproportionate lead in water threats for renters, low-income people and people of color.”
“We also recommend that the rule be strengthened to require comprehensive testing for lead in schools and childcare facilities, including tribal educational centers, with incentives for water utilities and non-profits to work with them to install filtration stations to provide immediate safe water and take steps to remove and replace any lead plumbing, fixtures and faucets,” wrote the members.
Last year, Duckworth and Booker founded the first ever Senate Lead Task Force to increase long-term visibility around the public health crisis of lead and to oversee the state and federal implementation of the lead pipe removal and replacement funding. Along with Duckworth and Booker, yesterday’s letter was co-signed by every member of the Task Force, including U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Ed Markey (D-MA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), as well as U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Laphonza Butler (D-CA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Peter Welch (D-VT).
Along with Tlaib and Dingell, the letter was co-signed in the House by U.S. Representatives Alma Adams (D-NC-12), Gabe Amo (D-RI-01), Becca Balint (D-VT-At Large), Nanette Barragán (D-CA-44), Joyce Beatty (D-OH-03), Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR-01), Jamaal Bowman (D-NY-16), Julia Brownley (D-CA-26), Nikki Budzinski (D-IL-13), Salud Carbajal (D-CA-24), Troy Carter (D-LA-02), Greg Casar (D-TX-35), Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL-20), Judy Chu (D-CA-28), Steve Cohen (D-TN-09), Gerald Connolly (D-VA-11), Dwight Evans (D-PA-03), Bill Foster (D-IL-11), Maxwell Frost (D-FL-10), John Garamendi (D-CA-08), Jesús García (D-IL-04), Sylvia Garcia (D-TX-29), Daniel Goldman (D-NY-10), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ-07), Glenn Ivey (D-MD-04), Sara Jacobs (D-CA-51), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA-07), Hank Johnson (D-GA-04), Robin Kelly (D-IL-02), Ro Khanna (D-CA-17), Daniel Kildee (D-MI-08), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL-08), Barbara Lee (D-CA-12), Summer Lee (D-PA-12), Ted Lieu (D-CA-36), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA-18), Seth Magaziner (D-RI-02), Lucy McBath (D-GA-07), Jennifer McClellan (D-VA-04), James McGovern (D-MA-02), Gwen Moore (D-WI-04), Kevin Mullin (D-CA-15), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY-12), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC-At Large), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14), Donald Payne (D-NJ-10), Mark Pocan (D-WI-02), Katie Porter (D-CA-47), Delia Ramirez (D-IL-03), Jamie Raskin (D-MD-08), Pat Ryan (D-NY-18), Andrea Salinas (D-OR-06), Linda Sánchez (D-CA-38), Janice Schakowsky (D-IL-09), Adam Schiff (D-CA-30), Brad Schneider (D-IL-10), Robert Scott (D-VA-03), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI-07), Darren Soto (D-FL-09), Haley Stevens (D-MI-11), Shri Thanedar (D-MI-13), Dina Titus (D-NV-01), Ritchie Torres (D-NY-15), Lauren Underwood (D-IL-14), Juan Vargas (D-CA-52), Nydia Velázquez (D-NY-07), Maxine Waters (D-CA-43) and Frederica Wilson (D-FL-24).
The letter is endorsed by the Natural Resources Defense Council and League of Conservation Voters.
Last month, the Senate Lead Task Force held a staff briefing on an explanation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) publishing of their proposed Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI) to strengthen the existing Lead and Copper Rule (LCR). This briefing included presentations from Erik Olson, Director of Health at the Natural Resources Defense Council, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha who helped uncover the Flint water crisis and Kareem Adeem, Director of the Newark Department of Water and Sewer Utilities that helped eradicate Newark of all its lead pipes in three years.
Duckworth’s Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act (DWWIA) was signed into law as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and is the most significant federal investment in water infrastructure in history, including $15 billion for national lead pipe replacement. In 2019, Booker’s Water Infrastructure Funding Transfer Act was signed into law to allow states to make a one-time transfer of the federal funds in their Clean Water State Revolving Fund to their Drinking Water State Revolving Fund to address public health concerns as a result of heightened exposure to lead in drinking water, which helped Newark replace all its lead service lines within three years.
The full letter can be found below or on the Senator’s website.
Dear Administrator Regan:
Thank you for your bold leadership working to address and eliminate lead in drinking water across our nation. In particular, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI) proposal in December 2023 represents a critical step forward that will protect public health, create jobs and ensure a better future for our children.
As you know, lead service lines (LSLs) pose an unacceptable health threat and disproportionately impact lower-income neighborhoods and communities of color. Black children especially are more likely to live in communities with LSLs and therefore have higher blood lead levels and are more likely to be poisoned by lead than white children. Given that disadvantaged low-income communities and communities of color are at greater cumulative risk from lead, they must be the top funding priority. This urgent public health crisis requires immediate action at all levels of government, which is why we strongly support the LCRI’s commitment to fully replace almost all of the nation’s lead pipes within 10 years.
We also appreciate that EPA is proposing to reduce the lead action level from 15 parts per billion (ppb) to 10 ppb. This will ensure that communities across the nation are quickly detecting and taking action to address lead where it poses the greatest threat to public safety. However, as we know, there is no safe level of lead in drinking water and we recommend that you consider further lowering the threshold to the lowest practicable level.
In order to further strengthen the LCRI proposal, we urge the agency to consider some additional important changes to the final rule. Specifically, we recommend that the agency reconsider its proposed provisions that would enable some water systems to drag out the process of replacing their lead pipes over multiple decades. While we recognize the challenges for some municipalities to remove thousands of lead pipes in 10 years, the proposed rule could allow another generation of children in many communities to be exposed to lead from their tap water. Some cities have been able to replace tens of thousands of lead pipes in just a few years, creating jobs while providing enormous benefits to their communities. Recent studies show that the health and economic benefits of removing lead pipes and reducing lead levels in tap water are more than 10-fold larger than the costs, and that this work can create hundreds of thousands of good- paying jobs.
As part of the replacement provisions, the final rule should clearly ensure that individual property owners do not have to pay for lead service line replacement. These costs should be covered by federal, state and local government funds intended for lead service line replacement, including but not limited to, public-private partnerships and funds provided in the State Revolving Funds, EPA grant programs and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Some water systems and states required, installed, encouraged and approved lead pipe use for generations, with no input from homeowners. When utilities charge individual property owners for lead service line removal, low-income homeowners are often unable to pay and the landlords of low- income renters often refuse to pay. This particularly exposes renters, low-income people and people of color to higher levels of lead in their drinking water.
There are substantial new federal funds available to assist with the replacement of lead pipes, including $15 billion in dedicated funding for lead pipe replacement and an additional $11.7 billion in grants, loans and principal forgiveness through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) included in the Drinking Water and Wastewater Act that passed as part of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. There are additional funds provided under the Small, Underserved, and Disadvantaged Communities and the Reducing Lead in Drinking Water grants programs.
Billions of dollars remain in many state and local coffers from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act that are explicitly available for full lead pipe replacement. Other federal funds that may be used for lead pipe replacement are provided through the existing annual DWSRF appropriations and the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act. We would be pleased to work with you on improving access to these federal investments in replacing lead pipes and addressing drinking water infrastructure needs.
We also recommend that the LCRI proposal require comprehensive testing for lead in schools and childcare facilities, including tribal educational centers, with incentives for water utilities and non-profits to install filtration stations at these facilities that can provide immediate safe water while taking steps to remove and replace any lead plumbing, faucets and fixtures. This could work in coordination with the existing Voluntary School and Child Care Lead Testing and Reduction Grant Program created in 2016 and further improved by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021.
The agency’s proposed strengthening of provisions for reporting, public education and notification requirements are welcome, though even more could be done to ensure the public receives straightforward and honest information about the risk of lead in their tap water. We particularly urge EPA to expand lead testing and education programs in Native American and Tribal communities in consultation with leaders, experts and stakeholders. EPA also should work with other relevant agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense to provide guidance and prioritization for the removal of lead pipes in government or government-subsidized housing, including transparent notification of lead presence for occupants. It is inexcusable for federally funded housing to poison its own residents.
In addition to these improvements, the existing Lead and Copper Rule must be better enforced. According to EPA’s own data, there are widespread – and often underreported – violations. To truly improve the Lead and Copper Rule, EPA must do more to ensure that these violations are taken seriously and addressed.
We want to thank you Administrator Regan, Assistant Administrator Fox and EPA for your strong and consistent dedication to tackling this important problem. We believe that together, we can end the lead in drinking water crisis so future generations in this country will not have to question the safety of the water flowing from their taps.
Sincerely,
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