EPA’s proposed revisions to the federal Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) “are urgently needed today,” a group of 33 House Democrats wrote to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy on May 20.
Led by Illinois Democrats Mike Quigley and Tammy Duckworth, the letter pointed to the Flint water crisis as an example of “the urgent need to address the threat of lead-contaminated drinking water that results from our nation’s aging and dilapidated infrastructure.”
EPA must take “swift, decisive action to strengthen the LCR to better protect public health and improve transparency of drinking water quality,” the letter said, while urging EPA to issue its LCR revisions ahead of the agency’s current target date of 2017.
The letter is not expected to alter EPA’s approach to the LCR process, though some House Republicans such as Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) have also called on the agency to speed up its rulemaking process. Nevertheless, legislation that would require EPA to move faster has not gained support of Republicans on Capitol Hill.
The House Democrats’ letter also called on EPA to include several priorities in its LCR proposal, such as:
- Requiring public water systems to develop a plan to rapidly implement a lead service line (LSL) replacement program, prioritizing areas with the highest number of known LSLs, and to develop “an accurate inventory of LSLs that are maintained in a database which is open and readily accessible to the public”;
- Additional public education efforts aimed at individuals at risk of elevated lead exposure in the drinking water; and
- Requiring that public water systems to review corrosion control effectiveness each time changes to source water or water treatment protocols are planned.