The Environmental Protection Agency plans to tighten its rules on lead in drinking water, but the proposal has more to do with monitoring requirements placed upon public water utilities.
The most notable change related to our industry would be the requirement to re-evaluate lead service lines. Many have previously been identified as low risk after any major treatment changes that could affect corrosion control. Current regulation allows utilities to consider lead service lines that test below the action levels for lead as “replaced” for the purposes of compliance. Under certain circumstances, however, all previously “tested-out” service lines would have to be tested again or added back into the sampling pool the utilities use to test for lead and other contaminants.