Deirdre Cummings
Legislative Director, MASSPIRG
617-747-4319
[email protected]
RELEASE: EPA sets 10-year deadline for replacing lead pipes
Media Contacts
BOSTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized on Tuesday a new rule on lead in drinking water. The new policy includes a 10-year deadline for most water utilities to replace lead service lines. This deadline is a significant step for public health as these approximately 9 million toxic pipes are the single largest source of lead in water in homes and other buildings that have them. In a major omission, the final Lead and Copper Rule does not require water utilities to halt the widespread contamination of schools’ drinking water, urged by organizations representing parents and educators.
“In setting a 10-year deadline for most utilities to replace lead pipes, the Biden administration is taking the most significant step to protect our drinking water from lead in the decade since the beginning of the Flint water crisis,” said Deirdre Cummings, MASSPIRG’s legislative director. “But the EPA missed an opportunity to safeguard the water at schools.”
We have long known that exposure to lead is particularly harmful to children. While relatively few schools have lead service lines, they often have plumbing and fixtures made with sufficient lead to contaminate water. According to the lead testing data from the Department of Environmental Protection, more than 80% of the 62,557 taps tested from 1738 schools and child care centers across Massachusetts since 2016 tested positive for lead.
“The data is clear – based on state testing results we know there is lead in most of the taps tested at schools and childcare centers across the state and we know children are the most impacted from exposure to lead,” said Cummings. “We need policies that get the lead out of faucets and fountains in our schools and pre-schools.”
A coalition of public health, environment and parent groups have called for lawmakers to pass An Act ensuring safe drinking water in schools, (S526 & H851) filed by State Senator Joan B. Lovely (Salem) and State Rep. Kate Lipper-Garabedian (Melrose). The bill would require schools and childcare centers to install water filling stations certified to remove lead and or use filters certified to remove lead on faucets used for drinking or cooking when at least one tap in the school has been found to contain lead.
Resources for schools to act. In January 2020, Massachusetts launched the School Water Improvement Grants (SWIG) program to protect children from exposure to lead in drinking water at schools and child care centers. The SWIG program, funded by the Massachusetts Clean Water Trust, is run by State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). While a statewide health based lead level standard for schools and childcare centers is needed to protect all children from lead in drinking water, the SWIG program offers an important tool in protecting children from lead in drinking water. The program is available to public school districts, private schools and public and private early education facilities, and non-residential daycare facilities that have completed voluntary lead testing and reported their testing results to MassDEP’s Lead Contamination Control Act (LCCA) program. Facilities can apply for grants to replace drinking water fountains, (bubblers) that have tested positive for lead.
