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10-Year EPA Plan to Swap All US Lead Pipes 'Still Not Enough'
While welcoming the "long-overdue meaningful action" on drinking water safety, one campaigner argued that "much more must be done—much faster—at no cost to impacted households."
Nov 30, 2023
The Biden administration's proposal to better protect drinking water nationwide was met with sweeping applause on Thursday, but at least one consumer advocacy group stressed that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency policy is "still not enough."
With its proposed changes to the Lead and Copper Rule, the administration aims to replace all lead water service lines in the United States within a decade, according to the EPA. There are also provisions intended to locate legacy lead pipes, improve tap sampling, lower the lead action level, and strengthen protections to reduce exposure.
Food & Water Watch Public Water for All director Mary Grant said that "the federal government has already waited far too long to require the elimination of these toxic lead water pipes, which poisoned the water in communities across the country," from Flint, Michigan and Jackson, Mississippi to Newark, New Jersey and Washington, D.C.
"The Biden administration has proposed long-overdue meaningful action toward the goal of eliminating lead from drinking water, but to ensure that every community has safe, lead-free water, much more must be done—much faster—at no cost to impacted households," she asserted.
Grant praised "agitators who emerged from... water contamination fights" and called on Congress to "step up to provide funding to replace the entire service line at no cost to impacted households, prioritizing low-income and environmental justice communities."
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed by President Joe Biden two years ago, "provided a $15 billion downpayment on this overhaul, but the total cost could exceed $60 billion," she pointed out, urging Congress to pass the Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity, and Reliability (WATER) Act.
"In a moment when many of us feel overwhelmed by bad news, the EPA's lead rule provides a ray of hope."
While additional steps are clearly needed, impacted communities and other campaigners still welcomed the progress on Thursday.
"Communities like ours... have grappled with the repercussions of lead contamination for too long," said Deborah Brown, a steering committee member of Newburgh Clean Water Project in New York. "The proposed improvements, especially the replacement of all lead service lines, signify a significant stride to safe and clean drinking water for our families and future generations. It's a step in the right direction."
Earthjustice attorney Suzanne Novak—whose legal group has represented the Newburgh Clean Water Project—said that "the EPA's proposed improvements to the Lead and Copper Rule are a much-needed response to a dire public health crisis that's been ongoing for more than a century."
"The administration's proposal takes important steps towards fulfilling the Safe Drinking Water Act's purpose of protecting human health to the extent feasible," Novak continued. "EPA has recognized that quick removal of all lead service lines is imperative, and that swift action is needed when a community has persistent high levels of lead in its water."
"Because the public health burden of lead exposure falls disproportionately on environmental justice communities," she emphasized, "we need to make sure that the final rule is equitable in how it achieves reduction of lead in drinking water across the country."
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) noted "apparent weaknesses" of the proposal, including that "water systems are not required to pay for the lead service line replacement," utilities could get extensions beyond the 10-year deadline, and the action level reduction from 15 parts per billion to 10 ppb "is less strict than the 5 ppb standards recommended by health experts and the governments in Canada and Europe."
Still, Erik Olson, senior strategic director for health at NRDC, said that "in a moment when many of us feel overwhelmed by bad news, the EPA's lead rule provides a ray of hope that we are approaching the day when every family can trust that the water from their kitchen tap is safe, regardless of how much money they have or their ZIP code."
Environmental Working Group senior vice president for government affairs Scott Faber also praised the progress, saying that "once again, President Biden's EPA is putting our families first and honoring his commitments to the American people."
The campaigner also highlighted the need to better protect communities whose drinking water is contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), chemicals used in various products that persist in the environment and human body and are connected to health problems including cancers.
Biden's EPA proposed the first-ever national drinking water standard for PFAS in March. Faber said Thursday that "we're confident he will also make good on his commitment to finalize a drinking water standard for the toxic 'forever chemicals.'"
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Flint Residents Demand Federal Action After Michigan Court Upholds Permit for Asphalt Plant
"This case shows how the state permitting process fails to protect communities, and that's why federal action is needed," said one attorney working with local activists.
Jun 22, 2023
Environmental justice advocates in Flint, Michigan called for federal action after a circuit court on Tuesday upheld a state permit allowing for a toxic asphalt plant to be built and operated on the outskirts of the beleaguered city despite sustained opposition from residents.
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) gave Ajax Materials Corporation permission to construct a new hot-mix asphalt manufacturing facility in Genesee Township—less than 1,600 feet from public housing in a low-income, predominantly Black neighborhood of Flint—in November 2021, just days after a federal judge approved a $626 million settlement for thousands of lead poisoning victims in the city.
Multiple lawsuits were filed challenging the permit. Ajax claimed that EGLE's requirements were too restrictive while the city of Flint argued that regulators' decision-making reflected a failure to adhere to legal requirements associated with environmental justice. In addition, five community groups—St. Francis Prayer Center, Flint Rising, Environmental Transformation Movement of Flint, Michigan United, and CAUTION—accused EGLE of using incomplete emissions data to evaluate the proposed asphalt plant's health consequences in violation of the federal Clean Air Act and Michigan's air quality rules.
As Earthjustice explained in a Wednesday statement, "The court ultimately sided with EGLE, which argued that the issued permit—amended only after public outcry forced the agency to extend its deadline for public comments three times—was sufficient."
In response, Mona Munroe-Younis, executive director of the Environmental Transformation Movement of Flint, said: "We are heartbroken by the court's decision not to protect a wonderful and vulnerable community from yet more air contaminants. But it's a relief that the plant will be forced to operate under stricter pollution controls than what Ajax sought and what EGLE would have permitted, had residents not pushed back."
St. Francis Prayer Center director Debra Hawley echoed Munroe-Younis.
"Community members had to drag EGLE kicking and screaming to issue a stricter permit for this toxic asphalt plant," said Hawley. "I'm proud that we succeeded in securing better monitoring and enforcement of this plant's emissions. This case shows just how crucial it is for the public to have a voice in environmental permitting, especially given the history of environmental racism in Michigan."
Flint, where the poverty rate exceeds 35%, has been hit particularly hard by environmental injustices that are inseparable from deregulation and austerity. Nearly a decade ago, a contaminated water crisis began when an unelected "emergency manager" appointed by then-Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) made the cost-cutting decision to switch the city's tap water source from Detroit's municipal supply to the Flint River, whose highly corrosive water caused aging pipes to leak lead into thousands of homes.
"The fact that EGLE has acknowledged environmental justice concerns with this asphalt plant and decided to go ahead and permit it anyway reflects a much larger problem."
Now, with a stamp of approval from Michigan's regulators and 7th Judicial Circuit Court, Ajax is on the verge of bringing another highly polluting facility to a community that is already overwhelmed by particulate matter stemming from the Genesee Power Station, Universal Coating Inc., Ace-Saginaw Paving Company, Buckeye Terminals, Superior Metals, RJ Industrial Recycling, and other nearby entities.
This concentration of industrial activity has left inhabitants with high rates of cancer, asthma, and other respiratory illnesses, prompting them to demand an assessment of the cumulative impacts of the projected emissions from the proposed asphalt plant along with the pollution emanating from other toxic facilities in the area.
"EGLE has the power to go much further to protect communities of color who are disproportionately impacted by dirty air and water, and they consistently choose not to," said Nayyirah Shariff, director of Flint Rising. "That pattern smacks of racism, and it needs to change."
In addition to challenging the permit in court, the community groups have filed separate Title VI civil rights complaints with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, requesting an investigation into EGLE's alleged racism in this permitting process and a comprehensive review of the agency's compliance with civil rights laws more broadly. The groups are represented by Earthjustice, Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, and the National Housing Law Project.
"By filing these civil rights complaints, we hope to secure stronger protections for communities of color surrounding the Ajax plant, and throughout Michigan," said Nick Leonard, executive director of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center.
As Earthjustice associate attorney John Petoskey put it: "The fact that EGLE has acknowledged environmental justice concerns with this asphalt plant and decided to go ahead and permit it anyway reflects a much larger problem. This case shows how the state permitting process fails to protect communities, and that's why federal action is needed.”
In Tuesday's decision, Judge David Newblatt pointed to the need for site-specific analyses in future permitting. This means that regulators would be expected to consider the multiple ways in which communities are already exposed to harmful pollutants—and the cumulative effects of those exposures—when issuing permits for new facilities.
In response, Rev. Monica Villarreal, an environmental justice organizer at Michigan United, said that "polluting industries should be on notice: Your choice to locate that new facility in an environmental justice community will mean a much higher barrier to get a permit, and those of us who live nearby will not stop fighting for our right to live and breathe clean air."
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Indignation as Michigan Judge Drops Flint Water Charges Against GOP Ex-Gov Snyder
"The people of Flint deserve justice--and it's unacceptable that the people responsible for Flint's water crisis aren't being held accountable," said Food & Water Watch in response to the development.
Dec 09, 2022
Environmental justice advocates on Friday condemned a move by a district judge in Michigan to drop two misdemeanor charges against former Republican Gov. Rick Snyder in connection with the 2014 Flint water crisis that killed dozens of residents of the predominantly Black city and poisoned thousands more.
The Detroit Free Press reports Genesee County Judge F. Kay Behm signed an order remanding willful neglect of duty charges against Snyder, who served two terms as Michigan's governor from 2011 to 2019.
According to the paper:
Behm cited a Michigan Supreme Court ruling from June which stated government prosecutors erred in 2021 when they had a circuit judge serve as a "one-man grand jury" to indict Snyder and the other officials. She also noted circuit court rulings to dismiss charges against other former state officials which cited the Supreme Court ruling.
"The people of Flint deserve justice--and it's unacceptable that the people responsible for Flint's water crisis aren't being held accountable," the advocacy group Food & Water Watch tweeted in response to the dropped charges.
\u201cA judge dismissed criminal charges against former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder over Flint\u2019s water crisis that killed at least 12 people.\n\n100,000 people in the Black-majority city were exposed to lead when the city changed its water supply to cut costs. \n\nNo one has been convicted.\u201d— AJ+ (@AJ+) 1670619661
Tom Ivacko, director of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan's Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy, said on Twitter that "the Flint water crisis was an abject failure of governance at all levels, and the ultimate price was paid by the residents of Flint."
"While the legal ramifications continue to play out, residents need to claim their role in holding the government accountable," Ivacko continued. "Policymakers need to redouble their efforts to increase government transparency and improve the workings of government."
Journalist Jordan Chariton noted on Twitter, "Nearly 9 years into #FlintWaterCrisis, not one government official in prison."
As the Associated Pressreports:
Flint's water became tainted with lead after city managers appointed by Snyder began using the Flint River in 2014 to save money while a new pipeline to Lake Huron was built. The water wasn't treated to reduce its corrosive qualities, causing lead to break off from old pipes and contaminate the system for more than a year.
The Michigan Civil Rights Commission said it was the result of systemic racism, doubting that the water switch and the brush-off of complaints in the majority-Black city would have occurred in a white, prosperous community.
Flint residents complained about the water's smell, taste and appearance, raising health concerns and reporting rashes, hair loss and other problems. Snyder didn't acknowledge that lead was a problem until 17 months after the water switch, in fall 2015, when he pledged to take action.
In addition to lead poisoning, a 2014-15 outbreak of Legionnaires disease caused by the water emergency officially killed 12 people, although an investigation found that the actual death toll may have been up to 10 times higher.
Last year, a federal judge approved a $626 million settlement for Flint victims.
Friday's dismissal comes two months after Genesee County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Kelly dropped felony charges against seven former officials in connection with the Flint water crisis. Earlier this year, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, dropped racketeering charges against officials connected to the catastrophe, drawing accusations of corruption.
\u201cThe Flint Water Prosecution Team today issued a statement regarding the latest development in the case against former Governor Rick Snyder. \nFull Release \u27a1\ufe0f https://t.co/6pPakYtyv0\u201d— Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (@Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel) 1670618146
Responding to Friday's development, the Flint Water Prosecution Team said in a statement that "this decision is not surprising, and the prosecution will appeal."
"We anticipated that this ruling would be similar to other outcomes that only considered process," the prosecutors continued. "Our team has been preparing for this and looks forward to addressing these issues in court. As we have reiterated time and again, rulings up to this point have been on process alone--not on the merits of the case."
"We are confident that the evidence clearly supports the criminal charges against Rick Snyder," the team added, "and we will not stop until we have exhausted all possible legal options to secure justice for the people of Flint."
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