Tell the EPA: We need safe drinking water

There is no safe level of lead. And yet, up to 22 million Americans and possibly more drink tap water served by lead pipes. Tell the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to finalize strong regulations that will give everyone access to safer drinking water as quickly as possible.

Write to the EPA now

Tell the EPA to finalize strong standards for safe drinking water

A young girl filling a glass of water from a kitchen faucet.

Brian Maranan Pineda for NRDC

There is no safe level of lead. And yet, up to 22 million Americans and possibly more drink tap water served by lead pipes.

Lead harms the developing brain, making it especially dangerous for children and pregnant people. It can also cause fatal heart disease in adults.

Last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed regulations to help get lead out of drinking water.

We need the EPA to finalize strong regulations that ensure replacements of all lead pipes in no more than 10 years, including in disadvantaged communities and areas most impacted by this health crisis. We also must require water utilities to cover the costs, so we’re not putting that financial burden on low-income homeowners, and to protect renters whose landlords are unlikely to pay the cost of lead pipe replacement.

Tell the EPA to finalize strong regulations that will give everyone access to safer drinking water as quickly as possible.

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Your Message

Subject Do your part to replace lead pipes equitably and quickly

Dear Mr. Regan:

Message Body

There is no safe level of lead. And yet, up to 22 million Americans and possibly more drink tap water served by lead pipes. Please finalize strong regulations to attack this public health crisis so everyone can access safer drinking water.

Last year, the EPA announced a proposal to help get lead out of drinking water, which is a critical step toward addressing this urgent health issue – but the regulations would take a decade to be put into place and allow some utilities to skirt their duty to pay to replace these lead pipes. We need the EPA to finalize strong regulations that:

- Require water utilities to cover the full cost of lead service line replacement, so we’re not putting that financial burden on low-income homeowners, and to protect renters whose landlords are unlikely to pay the cost of lead pipe replacement. This is especially important in environmental justice communities that are already saddled with disproportionate lead contamination.

- Keep their promise to ensure that water utilities take no more than a decade to remove their lead service lines. We don’t want another generation of our kids to be harmed by lead pipes that are contaminating their tap water, or to expose adults with cardiovascular disease to additional long-term risks of a heart attack or even death from prolonged exposure to lead pipes.

Please, do your part to replace lead pipes equitably and quickly.

Thank you.

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