Lead and Copper Rule (LCR)
Taking Action Against Lead
Minimizing lead and copper in drinking water has been a regulatory challenge ever since EPA published the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) in 1991. The rule established a maximum contaminant level goal (MCLG) of zero for lead in drinking water and a treatment technique to reduce corrosion of lead and copper within the distribution system. Since 1991, EPA and states have taken action to increase compliance with the LCR, update the rule to reflect new research and best practices, and better protect public health. In January 2020, EPA finalized some changes to the LCR, known as the Lead and Copper Rule Revisions (LCRR). The most recent federal update to the LCR, known as the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements, were finalized in October of 2024.
The 1991 Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) established a maximum contaminant level goal (MCLG) of zero for lead in drinking water and a treatment technique (TT) to reduce corrosion of lead and copper within the distribution system. The TT focused on the 90th percentile of first-draw 1-Liter samples taken at customers’ taps that were thought to potentially have high lead concentrations. If the 90th percentile of all the required samples was greater than the lead Action Level (AL) of 15 ppb, then additional actions such as corrosion control treatment, public education, and replacement of 7% of the lead service lines annually were required. In 2000, EPA published revisions to the LCR to address implementation issues arising from legal challenges to the 1991 rule. The American Water Works Association (AWWA) and other water associations sued EPA on “control versus ownership” of lead service lines on private property. AWWA won the lawsuit on an administrative issue, as EPA didn’t propose a potential regulatory requirement for mandatory replacement of lead service lines as required by the Administrative Procedures Act. After 2000, systems that exceeded the AL conducted partial lead service line replacements, i.e., replacing the portion of the lead service line owned by the water system in the street right-of-way. After an elevated lead event in D.C. in 2003 and 2004, EPA conducted a year-long review of lead in drinking water and released a Drinking Water Lead Reduction Plan. Later in 2004, EPA published minor corrections to the LCR to reinstate text that was inadvertently dropped from the rule during previous revisions. In 2007, EPA revised the Lead and Copper Rule to enhance implementation in the areas of monitoring, treatment, customer awareness, and lead service line replacement. The update also enhanced public education requirements and ensured drinking water consumers receive is: meaningful, timely and useful information. These changes are also known as the “Short-Term Revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule.” In 2010, EPA’s Office of Water requested the Science Advisory Board (SAB) evaluate the current scientific data to determine the effectiveness of partial lead service line replacements (PLSLR) in reducing drinking water lead levels. In its report, the SAB concluded that weight of evidence found that partial lead service line replacement could increase lead concentrations in drinking water for a period of days to weeks, or even several months. Based on the limited information at the time, full lead service line replacement was found to be generally effective in reliably reducing long-term lead concentrations in drinking water. In 2011 Congress passed the Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act (RLDWA, P.L. 111-380). This bill revised the definition of lead-free by lowering the maximum lead content of the wetted surfaces of plumbing products (such as pipes, pipe fittings, plumbing fittings and fixtures) from 8% to a weighted average of 0.25%. EPA proposed a rule in January 2017 to implement the RLDWA and on September 1, 2020, EPA published the final regulation “Use of Lead Free Pipes, Fittings, Fixtures, Solder, and Flux for Drinking Water.” In March 2014, the National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC) Lead and Copper Rule Working Group convened to advise EPA in addressing the five issues with the existing LCR, including lead sampling, public education, and lead service line replacement. The NDWAC Working Group Report provided detailed recommendations that were, in turn, summarized by the full NDWAC in a letter to the EPA Administrator. The Flint water crisis started in 2014 when Flint switched its source of water and became a public health emergency in 2015 due to elevated levels of lead in water across the city. On February 29, 2016, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy sent letters to each governor and public health commissioner asking them to re-examine what was being done in their state to reduce lead in drinking water. Later that year (October 2016), EPA published the Lead and Copper Rule Revisions White Paper. This White Paper provided examples of regulatory options to improve the existing rule and highlighted key challenges, opportunities, and analytical issues presented by these options. In December 2016, Congress passed the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act (P.L. 144-322), which included authorization of $100 million for communities facing drinking water emergencies, including helping communities recover from lead contamination. In addition, the WIIN Act added section 1414(c)(5), “Exceedance of Lead Level at Households,” that required 24-hour public notification of exceedance of the Lead Action Level. This Section also required EPA to develop a Strategic Plan for how EPA, primacy agencies, and water systems would provide targeted outreach, education, technical assistance, and risk communication. In 2017, as a part of EPA’s ongoing effort to understand and assess lead exposure to children, EPA completed a peer review of draft scientific modeling approaches to inform EPA’s evaluation of potential health-based benchmarks for lead in drinking water In January 2018, EPA held an LCR Federalism Consultation with state and local officials, as well as water associations, as a part of the long-term revisions to the LCR. ASDWA submitted detailed comments to EPA. Building on these comments, ASDWA also published a Costs of States’ Transactions Study (CoSTS) in April 2018. In November 2019, EPA published proposed Lead and Copper Rule Revision (LCRR). ASDWA provided comments on the proposed LCRR and included an update to the CoSTS model. EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) provided additional feedback on EPA’s proposed LCRR. The report recommended EPA lower the lead action level to 10 micrograms per liter, adjust the benefit-cost analysis to better quantify the benefits of reduced levels of lead in drinking water, and improve the public education and risk communication requirements in the proposed rule. EPA published the final LCRR in the Federal Register on January 15, 2020. The final rule includes several new provisions and changes to the LCR: One week after the LCRR was published, President Biden was inaugurated as the 46th President and issued a memo freezing all applicable federal regulatory action pending review. The regulatory freeze left EPA with several options regarding LCRR: Ultimately, the Biden administration chose to keep the LCRR as published while pursuing additional changes to the Lead and Copper Rule, detailed in the LCRI tab below. After releasing the final LCRR, EPA convened co-regulators and additional water associations in a federalism consultation to discuss how to create more changes to the LCR. Specifically, the EPA sought to move forward from the lead service line inventorying requirements of the LCRR into the actual removal of lead service lines in a new LCR update, the LCRI. Following the federalism consultation, in November of 2023, EPA released its proposed Lead and Copper Rule Improvements. ASDWA commented on the proposed LCRI on behalf of its members. Throughout this time, ASDWA members also served on a State & EPA LCRR Implementation Workgroup to co-produce tools to help states come into compliance with the LCRR, as it promulgated in the same month that the LCRI would be finalized. In October of 2024, EPA released the final LCRI. The key provision of the LCRI was a mandate to remove all lead service lines in the country within ten years. The rule also made many changes to existing aspects of the LCRR. These provisions included the following: After Donald Trump, a fervent proponent of deregulation, was inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States, some lawmakers proposed legislation to repeal the LCRI and move back to the LCRR. ASDWA’s Government Affairs team took to the Hill to educate staffers on relevant House and Senate committees about the burden that this rollback would place on state administrators, given the vast number of water systems that would completely fall out of compliance if the LCRR was the current iteration of the Lead and Copper Rule. In the meantime, several ASDWA members serve on the State & EPA LCRI Implementation Workgroup to prepare states to enact the LCRI when it is currently scheduled to promulgate in 2027. To stay up to date on the materials and actions of that workgroup, you may reach out to a member of the ASDWA staff to request access to the ASDWA Members Team, where these files are held. Several states made minor changes to their policy and regulations in the aftermath of the Flint, Michigan lead crisis. Notable actions included state-level mandatory and voluntary lead service line inventory requirements put forth by Wisconsin, Illinois, California, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Massachusetts, Washington, and others as detailed in the ASDWA white paper on lead service line inventories. As ASDWA participates in the State & EPA LCRI Implementation Workgroup, we will share materials that require reviewing in our ASDWA Member Team. You can request access to that Team here. If you would like to be added to ASDWA’s LCR rule managers email list, please email Holly Sims at hsims@asdwa.org. ASDWA has developed a members-only page for LCRR information updates and materials from the state workgroups. ASDWA members and their staff can access the page here: Lead and Copper Rule Revisions (LCRR) – States Only – ASDWA (login required). In August 2019, ASDWA developed a white paper on lead service line (LSL) inventories that outlines different state approaches for surveying LSLs and includes recommendations for voluntary and mandatory surveys. In September 2020, ASDWA worked with BlueConduit to publish a white paper, Principles of Data Science for Lead Service Line Inventories and Replacement Programs. The paper outlines important considerations for state regulators and utility leadership when using statistical and predictive methods for LSL inventory and replacement Webinar Recordings Original Broadcast: April 10, 2020 Learn about state and utility experience with predictive tools and algorithms for lead service line inventories. Original Broadcast: April 19, 2017 Learn about the complex issues and solutions to lead service line replacement.
