Lead in Drinking Water
The Issue: In many communities across the United States, aging water infrastructure can be a significant source of lead exposure. The only permanent solution to this problem is the removal of the nation’s six million remaining lead service lines, as well as all other lead pipes, fixtures, and solder.
The Clinic’s Work
The Clinic has released white papers on the authority of water utilities to use ratepayer funds to pay for lead service line removal and on how water utilities should sample household tap water to monitor the level of lead in their customers’ drinking water. In February 2020, the Clinic, together with Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Dr. Karen Baehler of American University, submitted comments to the EPA focused on the health equity, environmental justice, and civil rights aspects of the EPA’s proposed revisions to its Lead and Copper Rule (LCR).
In Detail:
Crises in recent years in Newark, New Jersey, and Flint, Michigan, have brought greater attention to a widespread problem in the United States: lead contamination in drinking water. In fact, cities across the country have grappled with this problem for decades. Residents in cities such as Washington, D.C., Sebring, Ohio, and Durham, North Carolina have experienced elevated lead in their tap water, leading to potentially damaging spikes in blood lead levels.
Even low levels of lead exposure can lead to health effects in children including developmental problems, reduced IQ, behavioral problems, and anemia. In adults, health effects of lead exposure include cardiovascular problems, impaired kidney function, and reproductive problems. The Consumer Product Safety Commission banned lead-based paint in 1978 and Congress prohibited the use of lead in gasoline in the 1990s. These problems hit certain groups particularly hard: African American children are twice as likely to suffer from elevated blood lead levels as white children, and children in low-income households are three times as likely to suffer from elevated blood lead levels as children in wealthier households.
One major source of lead exposure is drinking water. Unlike most other drinking water contaminants, lead is typically not present in source waters and therefore cannot be removed at the water treatment plant. Instead, lead enters drinking water by leaching out of pipes, plumbing fixtures, and solder as the water moves through the system to reach residents’ taps. The most common source of lead in drinking water is the “service lines” that connect each home to the water mains (see below).