Letter to E&C Subcommittee applauds effort to address lead in drinking water

May 27, 2021  

Chair Paul Tonko Ranking Member David McKinley  2369 Rayburn HOB 2239 Rayburn HOB  

Washington, DC 20515 Washington, DC 20515  

House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change  Dear Chair Tonko and Ranking Member McKinley,  

Thank you for holding the subcommittee hearing on the CLEAN Future Act and Drinking  Water: Legislation to Ensure that Our Drinking Water is Safe and Clean on May 25th.  Several pieces of legislation before the subcommittee take crucial steps to address key  pollution threats facing America’s drinking water, including PFAS and lead. In particular,  Environment America is thrilled to see multiple proposals to fully fund the removal of all  lead service lines. In addition, we ask the subcommittee to consider dramatically  stronger initiatives to stop the pervasive lead contamination of water at schools, parks,  and child care facilities across the country.  

Specifically, the committee’s final drinking water legislation should:  

● Provide $45 billion to fully replace all lead service lines and require water utilities  to do so within 10 years;  

● Establish a grant program for local education agencies to install drinking water  filtration stations, and appropriate sufficient funding to ensure safe drinking water  for all children at K-12 schools and child care programs (at least $2 billion over  five years);  

● Establish a $500 million grant program to replace fountains at parks,  playgrounds, and libraries; and  

● Set criteria to voluntarily certify plumbing, fixtures, fountains, and other  appurtenances thereto that contain no added or detectable lead and that may be  used in schools and child care facilities.  

Lead Contamination of Drinking Water is Widespread  

While safe drinking water is a hallmark of modern civilization, it is never one that can be  taken for granted. Over the course of nearly a century, we allowed key parts in our  drinking water delivery systems to be built with a potent neurotoxin that affects how our  children learn, grow and behave. As a result, we now have a national epidemic of  lead-contaminated drinking water – from urban neighborhoods to suburbs to rural  America. So far, lead has been detected in drinking water tap samples from community  systems serving 186 million Americans . 1 

Health experts tell us there is no safe level of lead. According to the Environmental  Protection Agency (EPA),”In children, low levels of lead exposure have been linked to  damage to the central and peripheral nervous system, learning disabilities, shorter  stature, impaired hearing, and impaired formation and function of blood cells.” Medical 2 experts estimate that 24 million children are at risk of losing IQ points due to low levels of lead exposure. 3 

It will take an unprecedented national commitment to get the lead out and ensure safe drinking water for all Americans.  

Lead Service Lines Must Be Fully Replaced  

Fully replacing all lead service lines is the single most important step we can take to  reduce lead contamination of drinking water. These toxic pipes are the largest source of  lead contamination wherever they exist. For decades, regulators and water utilities 4 thought they could “manage” this hazard through corrosion control and testing. The  water contamination in thousands of communities – combined with the fact that there is  no safe level of lead – show that this approach has failed. If we want safe drinking  water, these lead service lines must go – as soon as possible.  

Given the resources, we believe most communities should be able to replace their lead  pipes in a decade or less. Some cities have already done so, while others have dragged  their feet for decades. That is why the 10-year deadline set forth in the bi-partisan  Smith-Cuellar Get the Lead Out bill (H.R. 3300) is so critical, and we urge the  committee to incorporate this key provision into any final drinking water package.  

Given the grave health risk, Congress should give communities the resources to get this  ambitious task done on time. There are roughly 9.3 million lead service lines still out  there, according to EPA’s most recent estimate. The full cost of removing these toxic 5 6 pipes is estimated at roughly $45 billion. Congress should provide this full funding, as  proposed in three separate bills before the committee – CLEAN Future, Get the Lead  Out, and AQUA – as well as President Biden’s American Jobs Plan.  

We Must Ensure Safe Drinking Water at School  

Our children should have safe, clean water wherever they go to learn and play each  day. Yet lead contamination of schools’ water is widespread. In Arizona , for example,  48 percent of the 13,380 school taps tested found lead in the water. We have found  similar patterns of contamination in schools across the country – from Montana to  Massachusetts , and from New Jersey to Texas to Washington state and beyond.  

While most schools do not have lead service lines, they do have extensive interior  pipes, plumbing, faucets, and fountains. It was not until 2014 that federal lead limits for  plumbing and fixtures were reduced from 8 percent to .25 percent of average material in  contact with water. Even with fixtures at the current standard, there is some evidence of 7 contamination. In other words, most schools in America have lead built into their water  delivery systems.  

As we have learned with the lead service lines, lead testing is highly variable, and so a  reactive strategy that only remediates taps based on samples will not safeguard our  children’s drinking water. Rather, we must proactively “get the lead out” at our schools.  

The single most effective step in this prevention strategy is to install new hydration  stations equipped with point of use filters certified to remove lead. Such filters are highly  effective at removing lead . The Senate’s bipartisan Drinking Water and Wastewater  Infrastructure Act authorizes $200 million over five years that schools can use for lead  reduction activities. While this is commendable progress over current programs, we  urge the committee to go further, and ensure grant funding to install new hydration  stations with point of use filters sufficient to supply safe water for drinking and cooking  at K-12 schools and child care facilities.  

Congress should also act to prevent lead contamination from other places where our  children regularly access drinking water. Rep. Grace Meng has recently introduced  legislation creating a $500 million grant program to replace pre-2014 fountains at parks,  playgrounds, and libraries. We would strongly recommend that the committee  incorporate her bill’s provisions into its drinking water package.  

Meeting Other Critical Drinking Water Needs  

Of course, ensuring safe drinking water for all Americans requires other investments as  well. As Ranking Member McKinley observed during the hearing, leaking pipes are  wasting vast quantities of clean water; we must replace them as well. And Congress  should adopt further policies to safeguard our drinking water sources from toxic  pollution, such as PFAS chemicals, microcystins, and nitrates. The EPA estimates  maintaining and improving the nation’s drinking water infrastructure will require $472.6  billion over the next 20 years. Congress should take action commensurate with this 8 urgent need.  

The public overwhelmingly supports federal investment in safe drinking water.  

The American people value safe drinking water, and they consistently support robust  federal investments to safeguard it. In fact, poll after poll shows that over 80 percent of  Americans – including majorities in both parties – support federal funding to stop lead  from contaminating our water.  

Sincerely, 

John Rumpler, Clean Water Program Director 

Environment America 

1 Kristi Pullen Fedinick, Millions Served by Water Systems Detecting Lead (NRDC May 2021); accessed on 5-25-21 at https://www.nrdc.org/resources/millions-served-water-systems-detecting-l…

2 U.S. EPA, Basic Information about Lead in Drinking Water, available online at 

https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/basic-information-ab…

3 American Academy of Pediatrics, Policy Statement on Prevention of Childhood Lead Toxicity, June 2016, available online at https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2016/06/16/peds.201…

4 Anne Sandvig et al., “Contribution of Service Line and Plumbing Fixtures to Lead and Copper Rule Compliance Issues” (Denver: AWWA and EPA, 2008), https://archive.epa.gov/region03/dclead/web/pdf/91229.pdf (showing that lead service lines (LSLs) account for 50-75 percent of lead contamination of water at the tap) 

5 U.S. EPA, Exhibit 4-10 (LSL Inventory) to Lead & Copper Rule Revisions, 13 November 2019, available online at https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=EPA-HQ-OW-2017-0300 (9,267,910 LSLs in 2023) 

6 See “Replacing All Lead Water Pipes Could Cost $30 Billion,” Water Technology, 11 March 2016, available online at https://www.watertechonline.com/home/article/15549954/replacing-all-lead…(AWWA estimate of $5000 per LSL replacement x 9.3 million LSLs = $45 billion.) 

7 Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act, National Service for Environmental Publications U.S. EPA, December 19 2013, https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPURL.cgi?Dockey=P100M5DB.txt 

8 U.S. EPA, 6th Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment, March 2018, available online at https://www.epa.gov/dwsrf/epas-6th-drinking-water-infrastructure-needs-s…