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EPA’s New Lead and Copper Rule: Modernizing Infrastructure & Protecting Public Health

October 8, 2024

When they took office, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris made a commitment to replace all lead pipes in the country.  Today, the Office of Water at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has put that commitment into action, releasing its newest Lead and Copper Rule Improvements, which require drinking water systems across the country to identify and replace lead pipes within 10 years.

Environmental justice and water advocates have been pushing for improvements to the Lead and Copper Rule for years. An estimated 10 million homes across the United States, as well as 400,000 schools and child-care centers, still receive water through poisonous lead pipes. We are thrilled to see that remediation of this stark reality is now within grasp.

“For the first time, our government has made a tangible commitment to ensure all people in this nation have access to water that is free of lead,” said Michael McAfee, CEO of PolicyLink. “We applaud the Biden-Harris Administration’s historic infrastructure funding, former EPA Assistant Administrator Radhika Fox’s leadership on this rule, and the EPA Office of Water’s commitment to seeing it through. Modernizing our nation’s infrastructure to protect public health demonstrates how we can move our democracy towards one where all can thrive.”  

These new improvements to the rule both reduce current risk and mitigate future harm by: 

  • Mandating water systems to begin lead replacement now and replacing all lead pipes within 10 years;
  • Requiring systems to update inventories on an annual basis, create lead service line replacement plans, and identify/verify all materials in unknown areas;
  • Requiring full replacement of lead service lines, mitigating the risk of lead exposure from partial service line replacement;
  • Lowering the lead action level to 10 µg/L, so that systems take action sooner; and
  • Requiring systems with multiple exceedances to conduct active outreach and provide lead reducing filters. 

“Ongoing lead exposure is both a racial justice and economic justice issue” said Yasmin Zaerpoor, Director of Water Equity and Climate Resilience at PolicyLink.  “We know that infants and children from Black and Latino families and low-income families have higher incidence of elevated lead blood levels due to disproportionately higher rates of exposure.  This rule will protect children across the U.S.” 

Ongoing data collection and proactive community outreach–particularly in underserved communities– will be critical to the new Lead and Copper Rule’s success. Additionally, water utilities must work with their states and leverage available funding for lead line replacement through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to keep water bills affordable for low-income families. 

“Swift and equitable implementation of the final Lead and Copper Rule will help ensure all people in our nation have clean, safe water,” McAfee added. “Low-income and communities of color have long awaited this critical government action to protect their basic human rights.”