Booker, Duckworth, Tlaib, Dingell Lead Colleagues in Urging EPA to Strengthen Lead and Copper Rule Improvements Proposal

Letter

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.

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