After a two month delay necessitated by last October’s government shutdown, the National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC) met in December and unanimously agreed to establish a working group that will provide recommendations for potential revisions to EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule (LCR). Long-term revisions to the LCR have been on EPA’s agenda for several years, but the process has stalled largely due to the complexities involved in developing potential changes. After almost a full day of discussions about the issues at play for revising the LCR, NDWAC members endorsed the formation of a workgroup that will include representatives from a wide range of stakeholders, as well as several current NDWAC members.
All aspects of the LCR will be in play for the workgroup’s consideration, including corrosion control optimization, sampling regimes, public outreach and education, and lead service line replacements. The lead service line replacement discussions will perhaps be the most contentious as EPA indicated during its NDWAC presentation that it would revisit the issue of requiring full service line replacements. In particular, EPA indicated that it would be looking closely at the issue of who “controls” the segment of the service line between the main service line and a customer’s residence. Current partial lead service line replacement requirements are premised on the homeowner having legal responsibility over that portion of the service line, and any reinterpretation of this to shift responsibility to water utilities will be controversial.
EPA’s latest proposed schedule for the workgroup has it convening in March, with meetings taking place at regular intervals throughout 2014. At the end of its deliberations, the workgroup will report back to the full NDWAC, which will then make its final recommendations to the EPA Administrator.
AMWA member Robert Steidel, City of Richmond Virginia Public Utilities Director, has been invited to represent AMWA as a member of the NDWAC workgroup. AMWA staff, in conjunction with the Regulatory Committee, will work closely with him and other utility association representatives to inform the process as it unfolds.