Get Started Yesterday (2021)

In March 2020 I reviewed the proposed Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) revisions by stating that it is “critical to the water community's ongoing efforts to protect consumers from the risk of lead in drinking water. The revised rule is an important step and there are several opportunities to make it better.” On Jan. 15, 2021, the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) published the final LCR. Yes, the Biden administration delayed the effective date. Yes, there are multiple parties that have filed petitions in the US District Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Yes, the Biden administration is seeking a stay of ongoing litigation to allow it to review the rule. Still, none of these actions change the fact that water systems and state regulators are required to meet the compliance deadlines in the final rule as published—we should get started now. The standard of care that USEPA incorporated into the final rule for virtually every action required by water systems will be challenging to meet. Given the public health and political significance of lead, water systems must do more than simply comply with the letter of the law. Large and midsize water systems face the most severe hurdles, particularly if they are behind the curve and must take additional actions because they have exceeded the lead action level or the new trigger level. AWWA and USEPA have different estimates of how many systems will be required to engage in mandatory lead service line replacement and mandatory revision of corrosion control practice. An initial estimate is that 40% of larger systems with lead service lines will be undertaking both these activities. The sector knows from experience that when systems rush into corrosion control revision and lead service line replacement programs, they can end up in very challenging implementation circumstances and sustain substantial loss of public confidence. Water systems often can rely on states for counsel in times of crisis. In this instance, however, states are trying to determine how to manage the workload associated with the rule while providing oversight for hundreds if not thousands of systems. While deadlines are now three and four years away, when they arrive, states will be dealing with a deluge of service line inventories, lead service line replacement plans, revised sample plans, exceedances, tier-1 public notifications, and then the follow-through on those exceedances. There will not be an opportunity to learn from the successes and mistakes of others unless water systems start now and take the steps necessary to comply. The LCR revisions are the most effective and most expensive Safe Drinking Water Act rulemaking since the Surface Water Treatment Rule. The revised rule is arriving as water systems face revenue shortfalls from the impacts of COVID-19, and they are unable to engage their communities and community leadership in person. It's challenging to focus on a rule with compliance dates several years away, but focus we must without delay. Systems that have lead service lines, galvanized service lines preceded by lead pipe, and service lines of unknown material will face an arduous rule framework come January 2025. Taking steps appropriate to your community to address these lines—removing those that need to be removed, characterizing those that are uncharacterized, reaching consensus on how lead services on private property will be managed in your community—will pay dividends in public confidence. Legwork accomplished now on inventories, protocols, outreach materials, and intra-agency planning can facilitate hitting the ground running when pandemic restrictions ease. Steve Via is director of federal relations at the AWWA Government Affairs Office in Washington, D.C. He can be reached at svia@awwa.org.