Attorney General Bonta Joins Multistate Coalition to Defend Biden Administration’s Lead and Copper Rule Improvements

OAKLAND – California Attorney General Rob Bonta joined a multistate coalition to intervene to defend the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2024 Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI). The LCRI, which went into effect on December 30, replaced the first Trump Administration’s rule, the Lead and Copper Rule Revisions (LCRR), which weakened existing drinking water standards and failed to protect the public from lead in drinking water. The Biden Administration’s LCRI strengthens the original Lead and Copper Rule by implementing more stringent standards to ensure safe drinking water, most importantly a requirement for water systems to replace lead pipes nationwide within 10 years. The LCRI is being challenged by American Water Works Association. 

“Access to clean, safe drinking water is an essential right, yet millions of Americans still are exposed to dangerous levels of lead in their drinking water,” said Attorney General Bonta. “It’s unacceptable. That’s why, I, alongside several attorneys general across the nation, are defending the Biden Administration’s rule, which includes critical safeguards for the health and well-being of our communities by ensuring access to safe drinking water and replacement of hazardous lead pipes.” 

Enacted in 1991, the Lead and Copper Rule is designed to protect public health and safety by reducing the harmful exposure to lead and copper in drinking water. Lead exposure disproportionately affects low-income communities and communities of color. Lead, a highly toxic heavy metal, can adversely affect almost every organ and bodily system. It is particularly dangerous for children since their developing brains and nervous systems are more sensitive to its damaging effects. Lead exposure can cause a range of health problems, including premature birth, learning disabilities, delayed physical development for children, and cardiovascular and kidney problems for adults. The EPA has determined that no amount of lead in drinking water is safe.

Most lead enters drinking water from corrosion of pipes, faucets, fixtures, and solder that contain lead or brass, and is exacerbated if water quality parameters such as alkalinity and mineral content are not carefully controlled to minimize corrosion. Dangerous levels of lead are disproportionately found in low-income communities and communities of color, which typically have older houses and drinking water infrastructure and are more likely to be served by lead pipes.

The Biden Administration’s LCRI contains important, health protective revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule to further minimize lead exposure from drinking water. The first Trump Administration’s 2021 LCRR, in contrast, contained several provisions that weakened public health protections, such as reducing the required rate of lead pipe replacement from that of the Lead and Copper Rule. The California Department of Justice joined a multistate coalition that sued the Trump Administration to challenge the LCRR. That lawsuit was put on hold while the Biden Administration reviewed the LCRR, then proposed and finalized the LCRI, and it currently remains on hold. The Biden Administration’s LCRI’s important provisions, including the requirement to replace lead pipes within 10 years, and the lowering of the lead action level – the concentration of lead found in residential tap water samples which triggers corrosion control and other requirements – from 15 to 10 parts per billion, are expected by health experts to have a profound impact on public health by significantly reducing lead in drinking water, a major source of lead exposure.

Attorney General Bonta joins the attorneys general of New York, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.

A copy of the motion can be found here.