The working group of the National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC) established to review potential revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR), held its second meeting on May 29 and 30. This second in-person meeting of the working group focused on protocols for sample site selection.
The first day of the meeting focused on sampling used for monitoring corrosion control practices and identifying the locations vulnerable to lead exposure. Discussions focused on the need to separate the sampling regime for corrosion control monitoring from that used for lead monitoring. The prevailing thought was that corrosion control samples could be done more effectively and efficiently by utility personnel, and without entering customers’ homes.
Sampling to identify high lead areas in the distribution system was a more difficult topic to assess. Working group members struggled to find concrete ideas that would address the issue within the power of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). Several of the ideas of how to best identify areas with lead would require the active involvement of other local government agencies such as health departments, which is often difficult to coordinate. The working group will revisit the issue at future meetings with in the added context of other rule components.
On the second day of the meeting, discussions focused on copper monitoring. Working group members quickly came to the conclusion that separation of copper sampling from lead sampling was a “no-brainer” given the very different circumstances under which they occur. Further, it was put forward that very little (if any) copper monitoring would be needed at all. Rather, discussions largely focused on utilities’ ability to monitor the aggressiveness of their water using common water quality monitoring values. Water that is non-aggressive to copper, which represents most utilities, could be exempted from copper monitoring. Utilities with more aggressive water profiles could do outreach targeting areas most at risk to high copper levels, generally buildings with new copper plumbing.
The general theme for the meetings was movement to separation of rule components for better monitoring, evaluation and action. However, no consensus or recommendations have been put forth at this point and all areas will be further discussed at future meetings within the context of addition information and other rule components.
Additional meetings (next meeting will be in September) will be held to discuss protocols for taking the actual samples, lead service line replacement and public education. Based on the current schedule, recommendations from the workgroup, and subsequently, the full NDWAC, are not expected to reach the EPA Administrator until well into 2015. Following the submission of NDWAC recommendations, EPA is projecting the proposal for revisions to the LCR to be published in September 2015.
AMWA member Robert Steidel, City of Richmond Virginia Director of Utilities, serves as a member of the NDWAC workgroup reviewing potential revisions to the LCR. AMWA staff is also attending all meetings and will provide continual updates on the process.