‘A really bad deal for residents’: Advocates fight 2nd attempt to repeal federal lead pipe replacement rule

SALISBURY TWP., Pa. — Efforts to repeal the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s rule mandating communities replace lead pipes hasn't gained much momentum, a clean water advocacy group said.

“We haven't heard anyone from the administration talk about it, but that's why we want all members of Congress to speak out against it right now,” said Mary Grant, campaign director at Food & Water Watch.

"That it's not good for their residents, that it would lead to more toxic water. It would slow down the pace of these really critically important lead service plan replacements.

"And we just need all members of the House to speak out against it so that it doesn't move. We really want to stop it before it gets any type of traction. It's just a really bad deal for residents.”

Almost a month after a rally outside U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie’s township office in defense of the EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule Improvements, there’s been another attempt to quash it.

Exposure to lead has been known to cause health problems, especially in children.

“We're really hopeful that we can stop it from being repealed,” Grant said. “It's already on the books. It's a good law. And, again, lead is an issue that affects many communities across the country — it's really dangerous.

“And we think that if everyone just reaches out to their member of Congress within their district, and ask them to vote no and to oppose it publicly. I think we can stop it from moving forward.”

The lead pipe problem

The rule, which gave communities across the country a decade to replace lead pipes, has seen back-to-back attempts to repeal it through joint resolution.

A Republican congressman from Alabama in mid-January introduced H.J. Res. 18, prompting the January rally. This month, another Republican congressman, this time from Georgia, introduced H.J. Res. 44.

The text and purpose of the resolutions are the same — to void the rule.

"Protecting our environment, and making sure we have clean air and water, has always been a top priority for me,” Mackenzie said in an emailed statement.

“I have served on advisory boards for both the U.S. EPA and the state Department of Environmental Protection to advance that cause.

“As congressman, I will continue my long tradition of voting to ensure clean air and water for everyone in our community."

Bigger problem in PA

In early October, the EPA published its Lead and Copper Rule Improvements, mandating drinking water systems across the United States to identify and replace lead pipes within 10 years.

“The Lead and Copper Rule Improvements [LCRI] also require more rigorous testing of drinking water and a lower threshold requiring communities to take action to protect people from lead exposure in water,” according to the EPA’s website.

“In addition, the final rule improves communication within communities so that families are better informed about the risk of lead in drinking water, the location of lead pipes and plans for replacing them.

While lead pipes are an issue across the United States, Pennsylvania, in particular, has a lead pipe problem.

The commonwealth ranks fourth of all U.S. states for the most lead pipes, according to EPA's “7th Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment.”

Florida, Illinois and Ohio were the only states to rank higher.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

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Pennsylvania has about 689,000 lead service lines, making up 7.5% of all service lines in the commonwealth, according to results of the EPA's survey.

In the Lehigh Valley, it’s going to cost an estimated $100 million over the next decade to replace pipes made of lead, galvanized steel and unknown materials throughout the Lehigh County Authority’s service area, which includes 13 municipalities.

‘A very wonky law’

There were about a dozen people at the late January rally opposing the first joint resolution at Mackenzie’s office, 1100 block of S. Cedar Crest Boulevard.

Organized by Food & Water Watch, the rally led to advocates ending up meeting with two staffers, because Mackenzie wasn’t in his office.

In lieu of another rally, Grant said the group delivered a letter to Mackenzie’s office Thursday afternoon.

The letter asks “him to oppose the new resolution and any other one that would repeal the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements,” Grant said.

While the text and purpose of the resolutions are the same, there’s a reason it was reintroduced, Grant said, and it has to do with timing.

“We were anticipating that it would be refiled because the Congressional Review Act is a very wonky law,” she said.

“And there's a window of opportunity for a new Congress that can expedite and fast track a Congressional Review Act resolution to repeal a previous law if it's filed within a certain window.

“So, the first resolution we pointed to was filed a little too early.”

‘Regardless of where you stand’

That “window of opportunity” opened 15 days into the new Congress, Grant said.

Through that process, a joint resolution qualifies for fast-tracked procedures in the Senate, and doesn’t have to be filed there, too.

In a news release announcing the second joint resolution to void the LCRI, U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia announced more than a dozen other Congressional Review Act joint resolutions.

“This past November, the American people overwhelmingly rejected the Biden-Harris Administration’s destructive policies,” Clyde said in the release.

“As President Trump works rapidly to get our country back on track, Congress must do the same by swiftly overturning costly, misguided Biden-era regulations.”

For Grant, the message seemed “more partisan and less about actual policy."

“I think this is an issue that just resonates really well in a bipartisan way that a lot of issues may not,” she said.

“This is one that I think everyone, regardless of where you stand on the political aisle, wants safe, lead-free water.”