WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday it would require stricter monitoring and reporting of problems with lead in drinking water.
EPA officials said they found few such problems nationally, but were moving to impose stricter requirements in 1991 lead and copper regulations, starting early next year, because of lead in drinking water found in 2002 in the Washington area.
Those problems gained widespread attention two years later, and residents complained that the city had done little to alert them.
The EPA would require that utilities better control corrosion in pipes and notify states at least 60 days before making changes in water treatment. Utilities also would be required to notify residents of any testing within a home or facility. The agency is also updating its 1994 guidance on testing for lead in schools' drinking water.
Benjamin Grumbles, the EPA's assistant administrator for water, noted that the Safe Drinking Water Act makes cost a secondary concern to protecting public health. "This plan will increase the accuracy and consistency of monitoring and reporting, and it ensures that where there is a problem, people will be notified and the problem will be dealt with quickly and properly," he said.
Lead is a highly toxic metal used for years in many household products. Pregnant women and infants are the most vulnerable to lead, which can cause kidney and brain damage and, in some cases, death.
The EPA said its review shows the current regulations are adequately protecting more than 96 percent of water systems that serve 3,300 people or more. In the past three years, the agency said, there have been only four large water systems that had unsafe lead levels: Port St. Lucie; Washington; St. Paul, Minn.; and Ridgewood, N.J.
