LCRR Compliance Involves More Than Lead Service Lines

Abstract

The federal Lead and Copper Rule Revisions (LCRR) published Jan. 15, 2021, in the Federal Register are now effective, and compliance will be required Oct. 16, 2024. Almost 50,000 community water systems and another roughly 17,300 nontransient, noncommunity water systems have less than three years to prepare for revised rule compliance. There are several tasks at hand for community water systems, and a longer list of actions for those systems with either lead service lines (LSLs) or galvanized service lines where lead pipe is or may have been installed upstream. The new trigger level, revised compliance calculation algorithm, revised sample tiers, and evolving state practices on data included in calculations of LCRR action level compliance give systems—even those with reliably low lead levels—a strong reason to review current practices. There is also the potential for observing higher lead concentrations under the new rule's requirements. Under the new Lead and Copper Rule Revisions (LCRR), if a water system has a service line inventory that contains lead, galvanized pipe, unknown material, or lead connectors, the system will need to be prepared to take the following steps. The rule provides states considerable latitude to accept other types of analyses, particularly for small systems or systems without LSLs. Systems that are well informed when having that conversation with the state will be on much firmer ground planning an evaluation process. Procuring support services, assembling available data, conducting testing, and having preliminary discussions with state staff will require months of effort. Collection of relevant new field data and benchtop assay data can likewise involve extended turnaround times, and pipe assembly testing can take more than 18 months. Action now can help a system reduce the risk of exceeding rule limits and reduce the challenge of complying with rule provisions under high-pressure, time-limited conditions, such as after a lead exceedance. Systems that prepare an inventory and find service lines that should be characterized as lead, galvanized pipe requiring replacement, lead status unknown, or that may have lead connectors (e.g., lead goosenecks and pigtails) face additional challenges that must be overcome before October 2024 (see the sidebar, “Additional Potential Challenges for Water Systems”). And if water system experience in Michigan and New Jersey is indicative of what systems in other states might expect, then the changes in site tiers, sample protocol and frequency, and constraining of lead compliance calculation to only values from homes with LSLs where such lines exist will increase the likelihood of trigger-level and action-level exceedances. While the LCRR provides leeway for states to emphasize corrosion control or LSL replacement in systems that exceed the trigger level if the system serves 10,000 or fewer people, smaller systems should be wary of relying on the small-system flexibility provisions for ensuring adequate water quality and maintaining compliance. With roughly 50,000 community water systems in the United States, if only 20% of community water systems serving more than 3,300 people exceed the trigger level, that would result in almost 2,000 water systems across the United States that will have the challenges of communicating with customers about lead. Twenty percent is generally viewed as a conservative estimate, especially for any group of systems that have lead or galvanized service lines. The experiences in Flint continue to serve as a cautionary tale. In January 2022, Flint celebrated its sixth year of Lead and Copper Rule compliance, yet the city must continue to rebuild public trust. The new requirement setting a 24-hour timeline for public notice following any action level exceedance will only make this challenge more acute. Water systems are now in an incredibly tight time window for LCRR preparations. EPA is emphasizing the importance of LSL inventories, and we expect to see a guidance manual soon. Getting a handle on LSL inventories now may help water systems take advantage of the $15 billion available under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) that can be used for LSL replacement. This funding will be available over the next five federal fiscal years, and it will be distributed through state revolving loan fund (SRF) programs. Forty-nine percent of this funding is required by Congress to be in the form of a grant or loan with principal forgiveness rather than a loan. IIJA also includes $1.26 billion annually to the drinking-water SRFs over this same period. Funds from the SRF programs can be used for investment in corrosion control treatment as well as LSL replacement. EPA is also providing guidance to state SRF programs on meeting statutory requirements in IIJA implementation, which include equitable distribution of these federal funds and new domestic preference requirements. Prior planning will be essential to successful applications for state SRF programs. With EPA's focus on targeting these funds for disadvantaged communities, systems will have to communicate how funding will alleviate burdens on disadvantaged households. Even those systems that obtain federal funding will require a substantial local financial commitment, and preliminary estimates already indicate that the federal funding—while substantial compared with prior appropriations—is much less than the national cost of removing LSLs and reliable LCRR compliance for all water systems. Setting the stage for successful LSL replacement programs supported by IIJA and/or local funding is needed. We need to pay adequate attention to communicating effectively about lead in water, understanding what communities are doing now to manage lead exposure, and outlining steps that will be taken next. Action now can be used to build customer trust and satisfaction, leverage newly available federal funds, reduce the likelihood that your water system will fail to meet one of the new LCRR requirements, and make your system better prepared for productive engagement with state regulators when decisions need to be made regarding corrosion control. Some systems face other challenges—installing treatment for per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, planning new water supplies for drought resilience, rethinking secondary disinfectant residual practice (in light of EPA's recent microbial/disinfection byproduct rulemaking developments), and consolidating a group of systems around a new water supply. These systems cannot discount the potential impact of the LCRR on their current plans and the regulatory approval process. With its Dec. 17, 2021, Federal Register notice, EPA indicated it would revisit the Jan. 15, 2021, rule provisions. Given the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) anti-backsliding provisions, EPA has little opportunity to revise the rule to make it less stringent, but there is the opportunity to streamline its administration. Such improvements have received little public discussion. The agency's notice and associated comments speak to accelerating LSL replacement, a more challenging lead sampling protocol (e.g., first and fifth liter), a lower lead action level, and other changes to the rule that further emphasize the need for as much preparation as possible in anticipation of a more challenging task in the future. EPA indicates it will issue a revised rule before the compliance date with the LCRR, but has not stated when it would propose changes. The SDWA does include a statutory provision that requires EPA to give systems three years to come into compliance with new primary standard requirements, leaving open the prospect of systems needing to comply with the LCRR while adapting to any additional requirements EPA might promulgate in 2024. Many systems of all sizes have already taken steps to prepare for the LCRR. Too often, we focus on the system in crisis rather than the systems that recognize a task that needs attention and get the job done. The sector, regulators, and the public really need to hear about systems that have faced challenges, and taken steps to overcome them, and what remains to be done to prepare for LCRR compliance. There are many avenues to share your experience with the sector through AWWA, member sections, involvement in The Water Research Foundation, and other venues. Your insights would be much appreciated and very valuable to the sector, particularly to systems that now have only 30 months to prepare for compliance—less in states that are using state-specific authority to formally or informally change compliance expectations sooner. Steve Via is director of federal relations at the AWWA Government Affairs Office in Washington, D.C. He can be reached at svia@awwa.org.