New legislation introduced in the Senate last week would allow cities and towns to access Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) disaster assistance to address contamination of drinking water by lead.
Sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), the “Lead in Drinking Water Disaster Act” (S. 2674) would allow the president to “declare a major disaster relating to lead contamination of drinking water from a public water system” and thus enable affected communities to receive federal disaster aid. FEMA would be required to coordinate any federal disaster assistance provided for a lead contamination event with EPA, the Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and any other relevant agency.
Current law only allows the delivery of federal disaster aid in response to natural disasters and not man-made events such as the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.
S. 2674 is the latest in a long list of proposals lawmakers have offered in response to the water crisis in Flint. Senate leaders have not yet announced plans for action on any Flint-related bills beyond the stalled assistance package that would help the city replace its lead service lines.