The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Michigan mulls tough lead rules
LANSING, MICH. — Michigan would have the toughest lead-testing rules in the nation and require the replacement of all underground lead service pipes in the state under a sweeping plan that Gov. Rick Snyder and a team of water experts unveiled Friday in the wake of Flint’s water crisis.
Other proposals include requiring utilities to test all schools, day care centers, nursing homes and similar facilities — not just some people’s houses — and the mandatory disclosure of lead plumbing in home sales and rental contracts.
It is unclear how much the proposal will cost, and the policy workgroup Snyder appointed to consider responses to the crisis purposely did not take funding into account.
The Republican governor said at Friday’s meeting in Flint that he he expects the plan to generate legislative debate and a better accounting of cost considerations.
Under U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules, water systems across the country must take steps to control corrosion if lead concentrations exceed 15 parts per billion in more than 10 percent of customer taps sampled. Michigan would move by 2020 to a limit of 10 parts per billion — in line with the World Health Organization’s standard.
The federal lead standard is “dumb and dangerous,” Snyder said. The governor, who has apologized for his administration’s failures in the Flint disaster, noted that the EPA will not propose revisions until 2017.
“Let’s set a higher standard faster,” he said.
Flint’s crisis began after the impoverished city, in a cost-saving move while under state financial management, switched its water supply to the Flint River from Detroit, which adds anti-corrosion chemicals to its water to control lead levels. Eighteen months of using water that lacked the chemical resulted in dangerously high levels of lead being detected in the blood of some residents, including children.
“We gathered the right group of experts to come up with a solution that we need for Michigan but that can be translated nationwide,” said Mike Zimmer, Snyder’s cabinet director and a panel member who helped devise the proposed changes with a group that includes water experts such as Virginia Tech professor Marc Edwards.
Michigan is estimated to have 460,000 lead lines running from water mains to homes and buildings in older neighborhoods, third-most in the U.S. behind only Illinois (730,000) and Ohio (650,000), according to the American Water Works Association.
Just this week, Detroit’s school district reported elevated levels of lead and copper in nearly a third of its elementary schools due to testing that was prompted by the crisis in Flint.
A key goal is to make Michigan’s lead and copper rule “citizen-centric,” Zimmer said, by implementing more stringent and broader notification requirements, requiring public education campaigns and forming state and local advisory commissions to give the public a say in water protection. The proposal also would require: Water systems to tell individual customers that their lead levels exceed the action level within two days instead of the current 30. Yearly testing. Each water system to fully replace old pipes within 10 years unless the state authorizes more time.
The Snyder administration is still studying which proposals it could implement single-handedly and which would need legislative approval.
The governor in February asked lawmakers for $25 million to replace Flint’s service pipes and an additional $165 million for statewide infrastructure improvements, at least a portion of which could upgrade lead lines elsewhere.