Sen. Duckworth Teams with Rep Kildee on Lead Legislation

Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) has introduced an as yet unnumbered companion bill to Rep. Dan Kildee’s (D-MI) April 2017 measure titled National Opportunity for Lead Exposure Accountability and Deterrence (NO LEAD) Act (HR 1974).  The bill is actually a reintroduction of an earlier Kildee measure on the same subject.
Key bill elements include:

• Reducing the lead action level from 15ppb to 10ppb by 2020 and again to 5ppb by 2026.
• Requires PWS lead/copper sampling regardless of whether it is required by the rule or is voluntary sampling.
• Water systems shall report the number of sampling sites (residential and nonresidential) and dates on which sampling occurred.
• All such reports shall be made publicly available.
• EPA shall develop annual sampling protocols that include site selection criteria, sampling at all drinking water taps in all schools served by the PWS, instructions for compliance for public dissemination.
• Significant public notification requirements and timelines and requirements for public education provisions.
• Development of a lead service line inventory and ownership information.
• Prioritization of lead service line replacement actions in high-risk buildings – those with galvanized pipes, low water use, or have the longest lead service lines.

Neither bill contains any authorization of funds to accomplish these requirements.
You may review the Kildee bill by typing the bill number into the Congress.gov search engine or at this link https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1974 .