The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on October 8, 2024, the final rule requiring drinking water systems to replace lead pipes within 10 years.
Water industry reaction
WaterPIO
"The action level dropping to 10 ppb is expected," said President of WaterPIO Mike McGill. "The success of the LCRI is based on availability of funding. If there is a change in administrations, there has been an emphasis in the past on undoing what the previous administration has done."
BlueGreen Alliance
Executive Director of BlueGreen Alliance Jason Walsh said in a statement that "Too many people in America, especially people of color, have had to worry if the water they drink at home is posioning them and thier families. While the previous administration did nothing to fix the widespread toxic lead pipe crisis in our country, the Biden-Harris administration has acted. President Biden and Vice President Harris have put the right policies in place and have made a real investment to ensure that lead pipes in our nation are replaced within a decade while spurring good, union jobs. We applaud the EPA for finalizing this important rule and look forward to the near future when everyone in America can have safe, clean drinking water."
Environment America
"In setting a 10-year deadline for most utilities to replace lead pipes, the Biden administration is taking the most significant step to protect our drinking water from lead in the decade since the beginning of the Flint water crisis," said John Rumpler, clean water director for Environment America Research & Policy Center, in a press release. "But parents should know that the EPA has missed a major opportunity to safeguard water at school, where our kids go to learn and play each day."
U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG)
"We have long known that exposure to lead impairs development, learning and behavior in children," said Yana Kucher, chair of U.S. PIRG Education Fund's toxics program, in an Environment America press release. "Kudos to the EPA for starting to move lead pipes into the dustbin of history. Now, Let's get the lead out of the fountains and plumbing where our kids go to school."
