EPA Prepares To Trumpet Change In Lead Testing Standard That Experts Say Doesn't Amount To Shit
Ed. - Even Frank Luntz says it's bullshit.
The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to overhaul the way communities test their water for lead, a policy change that will be pitched ahead of Election Day as a major environmental achievement for a president not noted for his conservation record. But a draft of the final rule obtained by The New York Times shows the E.P.A. rejected top medical and scientific experts who urged the agency to require the replacement of the country’s six million to 10 million lead service lines, an expensive but effective way to avoid crises like the one still afflicting Flint, Mich.
The measure is the first major update in nearly three decades to the 1991 Lead and Copper Rule, a regulation aimed at protecting drinking water from lead, a potent neurotoxin that has been linked to developmental problems in children. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said there is no safe level of lead exposure for children, and the new rule requires for the first time testing for lead in all schools and day care centers. “The rule will better identify high levels of lead, improve the reliability of lead tap sampling results, strengthen corrosion control treatment requirements, expand consumer awareness and improve risk communication,” the draft from mid-July said.
But rather than enact the sweeping changes that some health leaders say are necessary, the E.P.A. is opting for more modest improvements. Some experts and critics said the new rule actually weakens the current rule in significant ways, for instance, by more than doubling the amount of time utilities can have to replace water systems with serious levels of lead contamination. “What’s the point of making the change?” said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, whose state enacted the country’s toughest lead standard for drinking water in the wake of the Flint disaster. Michigan also has required water suppliers to replace all lead service lines on public and private property before January 1, 2041. “Originally, we were encouraged that the Trump administration said they wanted to update the rule,” Governor Whitmer said. But when told of the final rule, she called it “sorely disappointing.”
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Two former E.P.A. officials described the new rule as insufficient. Ronnie Levin, a public health professor at Harvard University who spent 37 years at the E.P.A. pioneering lead protections in water, paint and gasoline, said the agency’s political leaders shut its scientific experts out of deliberations on the new measure. Miguel Del Toral, who recently retired from the E.P.A. in Chicago, where he also worked for more than 30 years on lead, agreed. “They had their minds made up about what they wanted and didn’t want in the rule, and we kept banging our heads against the wall arguing science,” Mr. Del Toral said.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/27/climate/trump-environment-lead.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytclimate