NRDC Sues EPA Over Rules Allowing Another Generation of Children to Drink Tainted Water From Lead Pipes

WASHINGTON – NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) today filed a lawsuit to remove the Trump administration’s new lead and copper rule that would expose millions of people to toxic lead in drinking water for decades. There is no safe exposure to lead.

“Didn’t we learn anything from Flint? The Trump EPA’s weak and illegal rule will condemn another generation of children to drink lead-contaminated tap water. The NRDC is suing to block this unfair rule and is calling on Biden’s new administration and Congress to tackle the leadership in the water crisis that the Trump administration has not addressed, ”said Erik D. Olson, Senior Strategic Director for Health of the NRDC.

In each state, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, 6 to 10 million lead utilities (the lines that run from the aqueduct on the street to people’s homes) remain in service. Dozens of millions of Americans are served by water systems that violate the EPA’s weak rules aimed at reducing lead levels in drinking water. According to analysis by NRDC, the Environmental Justice Health Alliance, and Coming Clean, water systems with higher levels of colored people are far more likely to be injured and continue to be injured due to ineffective government intervention.

“It is unacceptable that the new EPA rule should not reduce the burden of contamination faced by so many mostly black and brown communities that are already exposed to unacceptably high levels of lead and other hazardous chemicals in water and air. The EPA has simply refused to ensure that states and cities like Chicago can improve people’s health by removing dangerous lead pipes that contaminate drinking water, “said Jeremiah Muhammad, water justice program manager for the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) in Chicago. LVEJO is based in Chicago, which is home to an estimated 400,000 lead service lines, more than any other city in America.

The incoming Biden administration has options to consider before implementing the new lead and copper rule developed by the Trump EPA, including:

1. Hold public hearings with environmental justice and affected communities to review their contributions and find a way to improve lead protection in drinking water. The Safe Drinking Water Act required hearings to be held before the rule was enacted, but the Trump EPA ignored that legal mandate.

2. Follow the science by establishing a new drinking water standard based on updated studies to ensure that everyone who receives water from a water system has lead-safe drinking water.

3. Accelerate the exchange of every lead service line in every ward across the country. The EPA should usually request this, but Congress should also intervene quickly.

In July 2020, the House of Representatives passed a bill (the Tlaib Amendment to HR 2) that included $ 22.5 billion in line exchanges, but the Senate did not act. Similarly, bipartisan legislation has been put in place to fund and require lead service line replacement within 10 years. The NRDC urges the Biden administration to work with Congress to pass laws that require and fund expedited lead service line exchanges.

“Drinking water from pipes that are sometimes centuries old is like drinking from a lead straw. The only way to ensure that lead contaminants from these pipes don’t get into our tap water is to pull them out of the ground and replace them. It’s not cheap, but it is doable and very important in protecting children’s health, according to every major children’s health association, ”added Olson.

The NRDC has campaigned for decades to get rid of lead in drinking water, including challenging the 1991 lead and copper rule and filing litigation to purify lead in tap water in Flint, Michigan, Newark, New Jersey, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Today’s case has been filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The NAACP, United Parents Against Lead, the Newburgh Clean Water Project, the Sierra Club and Earthjustice filed a similar but separate lawsuit.

In the comments submitted to the EPA, the NRDC argued that the EPA is required by law to set a Directly Enforceable Maximum Pollutant Content (MCL) for lead of 5 parts per billion (ppb) at the tap (Canada and the EU recommend 5 ppb, which also applies is the US FDA’s maximum lead content in bottled water. If the EPA refuses to set an MCL, the NRDC has asked the agency to revise the rules, including requiring a full inventory of all lead and others Service lines.

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NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists and other environmental specialists have been committed to protecting natural resources, public health and the environment of the world. NRDC has offices in New York City; Washington, DC; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Chicago; Bozeman, Montana; and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC