{"id":3453,"date":"2020-12-22T20:32:24","date_gmt":"2020-12-22T20:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=142413"},"modified":"2020-12-22T20:32:24","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T20:32:24","slug":"epas-lead-rule-update-fails-childrens-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/22\/epas-lead-rule-update-fails-childrens-health\/","title":{"rendered":"EPA\u2019s Lead Rule Update Fails Children\u2019s Health"},"content":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON – Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its updated \u2014 but flawed \u2014Lead and Copper Rule, or LCR, which regulates the control and monitoring of lead in drinking water. The revised rule \u2014 released as the Trump administration rushes to lock in harmful public health rules \u2014 dramatically slows down the rate at with lead pipes are required to be replaced. It also allows small public water systems that used to be required to replace lead service lines to avoid replacing them altogether, even if those systems continually exceed the so-called lead action level.<\/p>\n
Most of the lead found in drinking water comes from lead service lines<\/a>, according to the EPA. Lead service lines naturally corrode when water flows through them. EPA estimates there are as many as 10 million lead service lines in the country<\/a>, and researchers estimate lead pipes serve as many as 22 million people<\/a>. In the U.S. as many as half a million children under the age of six<\/a> have elevated lead levels in their blood. And a study<\/a> by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 11.2 percent of African American children and 4 percent of Mexican American children are poisoned by lead.<\/p>\n Still, EPA\u2019s new lead rule requires water systems to replace only three percent of lead service lines annually after certain lead action level exceedances, in contrast to the seven percent rate in the current rule. <\/p>\n \u201cThis rule is a huge disappointment,\u201d said Suzanne Novak, Earthjustice attorney. \u201cCommunities exposed to dangerous levels of lead in water expected significant improvement after a decade of work. The rule needed a major overhaul to be effective. But that is not what we got. By slowing down the replacement of lead service lines, rather than speeding it up, the Trump administration is failing the country once again, this time as it walks out the door. Children will continue to be poisoned, with no end in sight.\u201d<\/p>\n