by Owen Klinsky
Daily Caller
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rule Tuesday that requires the replacement of every lead water pipe in the country, potentially placing $90 billion of costs on U.S. utility ratepayers.
The Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI) decision mandates that drinking water systems across the country remove and replace every lead pipe within the next decade, marking a key step in President Joe Biden’s push to remove lead from American households. A November 2023 estimate found the initiative could cost as much as $30 billion for utility companies to implement, but the American Water Works Association (AWWA) said it could cost as much as $90 billion, with the expense likely to be passed on to ratepayers…
“The entire lead scare is classic junk science,” Steve Milloy, a senior legal fellow for the Energy and Environment Legal Institute and a member of the Trump EPA’s transition team, said in a Tuesday post on X. “It is the dose that makes the poison. That is true for all substances including lead, but lead hysterics, AKA the entire public health bureaucracy, are fond of saying that there is no safe exposure to lead.”
