Proposed New Lead and Copper Rule Released for Comment Period
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released its proposed new Lead and Copper Rule for a 60-day public comment period.
EPA says, “The proposed rule will identify the most at-risk communities and ensure systems have plans in place to rapidly respond by taking actions to reduce elevated levels of lead in drinking water.”
The proposed rule is published in the Federal Register. Click here to read the proposed rule or to submit a comment. Comment period is scheduled to close on January 13, 2020.
EPA proposes to reduce partial lead service line replacements by requiring that all water systems with lead service lines must, subject to certain conditions, “replace the system-owned portion of the [service line] when a customer replaces their portion of the [line]” and must also follow up with practices to mitigate temporary elevations in lead after service line replacement
EPA proposes a new 10 ppb “trigger level” for lead in tap water, “a flexible provision designed to compel water systems to take proactive, tailored actions to plan upgrades …”
The proposed new rule would also impact tap water sampling requirements with changes designed to improve capture of elevated lead levels, including re-definition of priority tap sampling locations (“tiering”), sampling protocols, and requiring community water systems to test at “five drinking water outlets at each school and two drinking water outlets at each child care facility served by the community water system” every five years
- The water system would not be required to take any remedial action at these schools or child care sites
- If a state has a more stringent school or child care testing program that program may be used in lieu of Lead and Copper Rule requirements
To learn more:
Comments may be submitted by the public at Regulations.gov in Docket No. EPA-HQ-OW-2017-0300. Include the docket number in your submission here.
