Mich. governor seeks tougher lead limit for state and nation
Associated Press
LANSING, Mich.
In proposing a tougher limit for lead in drinking water, Gov. Rick Snyder wants to lift Michigan from the depths of the Flint crisis to being a national model for lead monitoring that could help assess whether current rules are too lax.
Nearly 1,500 water systems serving 3.3 million Americans have exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency’s lead cap of 15 parts per billion at least once in the past three years. If Michigan’s proposed new standard of 10 ppb were applied across the country, that number jumps to more than 2,500 systems with 18.3 million customers – a fivefold increase, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data.
Reducing the limit and adopting other proposed changes would give Michigan the world’s toughest protections “by far,” Virginia Tech University environmental engineering professor Marc Edwards said.
“This new rule is going to be very, very tough to meet, and it’s going to cost money. It’s a huge step forward if we’re able to pull it off,” said Edwards, who helped expose the contamination in Flint and devise Snyder’s plan.
Other steps would involve gradually replacing 460,000 lead service lines, strengthening sampling procedures to catch problems in the highest-risk houses and requiring testing in schools and day-care centers.
New York, Denver, Boston and Pittsburgh are among the cities that are within the current lead limit but would exceed the one proposed in Michigan. The number of violations would more than double in 19 states.
Snyder, who has apologized for his administration’s failures that caused and prolonged the Flint crisis, made the proposal April 15. He called the current national rule “dumb and dangerous.”
The EPA limit has been in place since 1991 and was established based on what corrosion controls can reliably achieve, not on what is considered a safe amount of lead in water. The previous standard allowed for 50 ppb where water entered a distribution system.
If more than 10 percent of sampled high-risk homes are above the federal level, agencies must inform customers and take steps such as adding chemicals to prevent corrosion and potentially replacing underground lead pipes that connect to homes.
Supporters of a lower limit say it would bring Michigan and the U.S. in line with World Health Organization guidelines adopted by other countries, including Canada and members of the European Union.