EPA to strengthen lead protections in drinking water after multiple crises, including Flint
By MICHAEL PHILLIS and MIKE STOBBE
Associated Press
The Environmental Protection Agency will soon strengthen lead in drinking water regulations, after decades when they essentially remained the same. Those decades have included numerous crises involving lead poisoning from tainted water, including Flint, Michigan and Washington, DC. Overall, lead levels in children’s blood have have dropped drastically, even while those crises in specific places unfolded. Lead in tap water is difficult to regulate and advocates had to push hard to enact the first comprehensive rules in the early 1990s. Some experts say the existing rules need to be enforced better, others say there are fundamental problems with the regulations that must be fixed.
