An EPA advisory panel is recommending the agency provide drinking water utilities with a "checklist" of actions to completely replace lead service lines, placing an emphasis on continued improvement rather than just meeting deadlines to reduce lead levels in drinking water. The National Drinking Water Advisory Council's (NDWAC) Lead and Copper Rule Working Group, which is charged with developing recommendations for updating EPA's lead and copper rule (LCR) has focused on the thorny legal question of how the agency can require utilities to do full lead service line (LSL) replacements or how to encourage them to do so. The panel has concluded in prior meetings that utilities should be required to replace all portions of LSLs, rather than the partial replacements allowed under the current rule - a position backed by environmentalists. But the question of how to encourage utilities to do so, as well as the way to define who controls which portions of the line is still up for debate within the agency.
展开▼
