New E.P.A. Lead Standards Would Slow Replacement of Dangerous Pipes

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration was expected on Thursday to propose new regulations on lead and copper in drinking water, updating a 20-year-old rule that may have contributed to the lead-tainted water crisis in Flint, Mich., that began in 2015.

The draft plan, which was scheduled to be announced by the Environmental Protection administrator, Andrew Wheeler, at a news conference in Green Bay, Wis., would include some provisions designed to strengthen oversight of lead in drinking water. But according to people familiar with the plan, it does not include a pricey safety proposal advocated by public health groups and water utilities: the replacement of six million lead pipes that connect homes to main water pipes. The proposed new rule would also more than double the amount of time allotted to replace lead pipes in water systems that contain high levels of lead.

The E.P.A. will promote the new regulations as a step forward in protecting water supplies. Although the new proposal will extend the timetable for replacing lead pipes, it will also include new requirements that all schools and day care centers be tested for lead, and, if elevated lead levels are found, customers would have to be told within 24 hours, not the current standard of 30 days. It will require water utilities to conduct inventories of their lead service pipes and publicly report their locations.

Environmental activists said those moves forward would not make up for the relaxation of standards in other areas.

The slower timetable for the replacement of lead pipes is a “huge weakening change that will swallow up the few small improvements in the proposal,” wrote Erik D. Olson, an expert in drinking water policy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group, in an email.

The new rule was expected to propose changing a key element of the current rules, which requires that a water system that is found to contain lead levels higher than 15 parts per billion must replace 7 percent of its lead service lines each year for as long as the lead levels exceed that measurement. The new proposal would instead require water systems with those lead levels to replace 3 percent of lead service lines each year.

Mr. Olson’s group estimates that the loosening of standards could extend the length of time needed to replace dangerous lead water pipes from 13 years to 33 years.

“It means that another generation of American kids will be exposed to dangerous levels of lead from their drinking water,” he said.

A spokesman for the E.P.A. did not respond to a request for comment.

President Trump has made the rollback of environmental regulations a hallmark of his administration, with initiatives to weaken or erase dozens of E.P.A. regulations on climate change, chemical pollution and water quality. At the same time, he has also called attention to the concerns about lead in water that were ignited by the discovery of high levels of lead and other contaminants that poisoned Flint’s drinking water for more than a year. He also frequently emphasizes his desire to promote “crystal-clear water.”

During a 2016 campaign stop in Flint, Mr. Trump said: “It used to be, cars were made in Flint and you couldn’t drink the water in Mexico. Now, the cars are made in Mexico and you cannot drink the water in Flint.”

“We shouldn’t allow it to happen,” he added.

Mr. Trump’s first E.P.A. administrator, Scott Pruitt, announced that he would prioritize removing lead from water. Mr. Pruitt stepped down amid a corruption scandal in 2017.

A 2018 report from the E.P.A.’s Office of Inspector General said management weaknesses had hobbled the agency’s response to the Flint crisis and that federal officials should have taken stronger action to correct repeated blunders by state regulators.

Mr. Pruitt’s successor, Mr. Wheeler, was expected to unveil the proposal, which was initiated under Mr. Pruitt, on Thursday. The E.P.A. planned to highlight it as part of Children’s Health Month, which falls in October.

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