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Water sector evaluating U.S. EPA’s newly-released Lead and Copper Rule Improvements rule

October 17, 2024

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AWWA Articles

Water sector evaluating U.S. EPA’s newly-released Lead and Copper Rule Improvements rule

Water systems across the United States, with few exceptions, must identify and replace lead service lines within 10 years, according to the final Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI) rule released Oct. 8 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The rule also lowers the lead action level from 15 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion and requires water systems to collect and analyze first-liter and fifth-liter samples.

be a lead leader

The American Water Works Association (AWWA) released a public statement about the rule, which said the LCRI “is another important step in our nation’s efforts to reduce exposure to lead from all sources. AWWA is committed to the complete replacement of lead service lines nationwide – in their entirety – as quickly as feasible.”

The statement continues, “As we review the technical details of the lengthy rule, we anticipate there will be challenges to overcome. For example, in many communities, lead service lines are partly on private property and owned by the property owner rather than the utility. The new rule requires water utilities to replace service lines under their ‘control.’ We share EPA’s desire to remove lead service lines in their entirety. However, this portion of the rule needs further explanation to assure water utilities are operating within their legal authority.”

LCRR now requirements in effect

In addition to the LCRI rule, as of this week (Oct. 16), water systems must comply with certain elements of the existing Lead and Copper Rule Revisions (LCRR), including:

  • Preparation such that the system can meet Tier 1 public notice requirements in the event of a system lead action level exceedance (e.g., communitywide notice within 24 hours of becoming aware of the exceedance).
  • Submission of a service line inventory identifying all service lines in a system’s service area as either lead, galvanized requiring replacement (GRR), non-lead, or lead status unknown. This includes making the inventory publicly available. EPA provided guidance and individual state primacy agencies have specified instructions for inventory development and submittal.
  • Notification to customers whose service line is lead, GRR or lead status unknown. With inventories submitted, initial customer notification within 30 days of official inventory submittal is no later than Nov. 15.

Further explanation is available in a fact sheet distributed by EPA in April 2024.

Additional LCRI requirements

Among the key requirements of the final LCRI are:

  1. All systems must fully replace all lead and galvanized requiring replacement service lines within 13 years of publication when a community water system has “access” to the service line. The final rule incorporates a cumulative average replacement rate compliance metric as well as the fixed deadline. The proposed rule’s explicit extended timeframe for systems with very large numbers of service lines requiring replacement was removed in the final rule.
  2. All systems must determine materials of all service lines within 13 years of publication and validate non-lead service lines are accurately classified through visual inspection of a sample set of non-lead service lines at two points in each service line within 10 years of publication.
  3. Addition of lead connectors to service line inventory beginning three years after publication. Existing connectors must be removed when encountered.
  4. Prohibits partial lead and galvanized requiring replacement service line replacement.
  5. Communication with consumers and provision of filters is required when lead, galvanized requiring replacement, and lead status unknown service lines as well as connectors are replaced. The final rule expands the list of disturbances warranting customer education and provision of filters.
  6. The lead trigger level was eliminated, lead action level was lowered to 10 µg/L, and related monitoring tiers and sampling protocol were revised. The tiers for sample site selection and the data used to make the action level compliance calculation were modified in the final rule.
  7. Systems exceeding the lead action level multiple times must provide filters upon a customer’s request.
  8. Notification of compliance monitoring site households of lead and copper monitoring results within three business days of receiving results.
  9. Changes to compliance monitoring for lead will apply to all systems on the same schedule regardless of system size or current sampling schedule.

EPA also announced $2.6 billion in newly available drinking water infrastructure funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This funding will flow through the drinking water state revolving funds and is available to support lead pipe replacement and inventory projects. EPA has a website that lists available funding resources.

More information about the final rule, including a pre-publication version of the Federal Register notice and fact sheets, is available on EPA’s LCRI webpage.

Water utilities can find lead communications tips in AWWA’s Lead Communications Guide and Toolkit and broader risk communication guidance in Trending in an Instant: A Risk Communication Guide for Water Utilities.

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