Debate flares over how quickly to replace many lead service lines

Workmen prepare to replace older water pipes with a new copper one in Newark, N.J., on Oct. 21, 2021. Seth Wenig/AP

With the Environmental Protection Agency’s latest — and strictest — plan to minimize the risk of Americans drinking lead-contaminated water on the horizon, the debate over whether the agency’s proposed rules go too far or not nearly far enough is heating up.

Although lead was banned from new water service lines in 1986, it’s estimated that more than 9 million such lines still carry drinking water to homes and businesses throughout the country. Under the EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule Improvements proposal, water utilities would be required to replace all lead-containing lines within 10 years.

…no amount of lead is considered safe to consume. Lead is a neurotoxin known to cause irreversible long-term organ damage, lower IQs, higher risk for miscarriage, asthma, cardiovascular disease, impotence, and elevated blood pressure.

The proposal from the Biden administration differs from rules put out in the waning days of the Trump term that allow up to 30 years for service line replacement, triggered only when lead levels test higher than 15 parts per billion. The new proposal, which would largely supplant the Trump rules, calls for stricter monitoring, enhanced public education, and the 10-year pipe replacement mandate regardless of lead levels.

An October deadline looms for the new rules to be adopted; otherwise, enforcement of the less-stringent Trump administration rules will begin. And complicating matters more: November’s election results could shake up whose rules the nation must follow.

While many cities and states have begun to replace their lead pipes, some utilities and officials say the 10-year time frame is unfeasible and too expensive. They say it would be difficult for water utilities to follow the rules while also dealing with new EPA limits on five PFAS contaminants, known as “forever chemicals,” and failing pipes, among other issues.

“Nobody will tell you that having lead in contact with water is a great idea,” said Steve Via, director of federal relations for the American Water Works Association, the country’s largest nonprofit water utility industry group. “The question becomes: How urgent a matter is it, and at what pace does it need to be done?”

Already, 15 Republican state attorneys general have argued that the proposed rules infringe on states’ rights and chase “speculative” benefits. On the other side, 14 Democratic attorneys general said that the EPA should find more ways to ensure pipes are quickly replaced in low-income areas.

Cost of replacement v. the health costs of lead

To be sure, no amount of lead is considered safe to consume. Lead is a neurotoxin known to cause irreversible long-term organ damage, lower IQs, higher risk for miscarriage, asthma, cardiovascular disease, impotence, and elevated blood pressure.

Public health advocates say societal costs — in health care, social services, and lost productivity — far outweigh the cost of replacement. They say corrosion controls that have limited lead exposure can and do fail, pointing to human and systemic errors that prompted the water crisis in Flint, Mich., where thousands of people were exposed to high lead levels in their drinking water.

…the benefit of replacing lead pipes outweighs the costs by a 35:1 ratio.

“That’s the whole thing about lead pipes: They unexpectedly release lead into drinking water,” said Roya Alkafaji, who manages an initiative focused on reducing lead exposure from water with the Environmental Defense Fund, a national advocacy group. “I don’t think kicking the can down the road is the solution.”

According to a 2023 analysis by Ronnie Levin, an environmental health researcher at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the benefit of replacing lead pipes outweighs the costs by a 35:1 ratio.

The EPA estimated $335 million in annual costs to implement water sampling, corrosion control treatments, inventorying and replacement of lead service lines, and educational outreach for the Trump rules. Using that figure, Levin’s analysis shows that $9 billion in annual health care costs could be avoided.

An additional $2 billion in spending — through upgraded infrastructure and reduced corrosion damage to appliances — could be saved. The broad spectrum of health-related costs has historically been ignored in analyzing the actual costs of leaving lead service lines in place, said Levin, a former EPA scientist.

Estimates of the cost to replace the nation’s lead pipes range […]

Full article: www.npr.org