Introduction
This week, the Campaign for Lead Free Water submitted to the Washington, DC City Council a set of recommendations for the development of lead-in-water legislation that is public health protective, science-based, justice-centered, and equitable.
The backstory to this potentially pivotal moment in the history of lead in DC’s tap water is important:
In March 2023, members of the Washington, DC City Council introduced two bills to mandate full lead service line (LSL) replacement across the District of Columbia:
The first bill was B25-0195, the “Lead-Free DC Omnibus Amendment Act of 2023.” B25-0195 would require LSL replacements to be carried out at no direct cost to property owners and to be coupled with a public education campaign alerting residents to the health risks of LSLs and lead in water, as well as ways to access lead-certified water filters, among other things.
The second bill was B25-192, the “Green New Deal for a Lead-Free DC Amendment Act of 2023.” Largely complementary to B25-0195, B25-192 would also mandate full LSL replacement, although at some cost to property owners. It would also establish a LSL job training program for District youth, ensure union participation in the program’s development, and require employers to pay minimum wage rates when workers preformed at least two hours of work in a workweek.
Currently, the DC City Council Committee on Transportation & the Environment is working to combine the two bills. Since this is the best chance the District has had to address lead in water comprehensively and make long overdue progress in protecting residents from routine – chronic and acute – exposures, we developed our recommendations with the following goal:
To support the Committee to create a bill that not only combines B25-0195 and B25-192 but strengthens them both in vital ways.
Aside from the science of lead in water and its adverse effects on human health, a guiding force behind our thinking was lead in water’s unparalleled history of harm in Washington, DC. Briefly:
2001-2004: First wave of documented health harm
In 2001-2004, the District of Columbia experienced the most severe documented lead-in-water crisis in modern US history. This crisis involved a two-and-a-half year coverup by our water utility (then named DC Water and Sewer Authority (WASA)), the DC Department of Health (DOH), and our water utility’s oversight agency (EPA Region 3). The extreme severity and extent of the contamination was made public on January 31, 2004, through a historic front-page article in the Washington Post.
Since then, scientific research has shown that DC’s lead-in-water crisis resulted in over 800—and possibly up to 42,000—cases of elevated blood lead (≥10 micrograms per deciliter) in young children and that the city’s fetal death rate rose by 37 percent.
2004-2008: Second wave of documented health harm (under the banner of remediation)
In 2004-2008, DC WASA conducted the nation’s most extensive to date partial LSL replacement program that it presented to residents as a health protective gift that went above and beyond federal requirements (partial LSL replacement involves replacing only the portion of a LSL in public property, while leaving the portion of the LSL in private property intact; in DC, this translates into connecting new copper pipe with old lead pipe). At the cost of over $100 million in ratepayer funds, the water utility – with the approval of EPA Region 3 – partially replaced over 14,000 LSLs. There was never any evidence, however, to suggest that this practice provides increased public health protection over leaving LSLs in place. To the contrary, the physical disturbance of the portion of the LSL that is left in the ground can result in significant lead release in the short- and long-term. And the point of contact between the new copper and the old lead can create a “battery effect” that, under certain circumstances, can accelerate lead corrosion and cause significant contamination both in the short- and long-term.
Indeed, in 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a study showing that District children in homes with a partially replaced LSL were over three times as likely to have levels of lead above 10 micrograms per deciliter as children who never had a LSL. Based on this finding, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) delivered a policy recommendation to EPA for an immediate moratorium on these replacements.
In contrast to the Flint, Michigan water crisis, however, which:
Was measurably less severe than the District’s in terms of its duration, levels of lead dispensed at city taps, and resulting health harm, and
Prompted the adoption of the nation’s most health-protective, state-specific regulation that requires water utilities to conduct proactive, systematic, and publicly funded full LSL replacement,
Washington DC has, to date, failed to a) acknowledge the harm done, b) aid affected families, and c) implement a proactive and systematic program to fully replace all LSLs in the District at no cost – direct or indirect – to residents. Adding insult to injury, in 2008, when DC WASA’s partial LSL replacement program was terminated because it was determined that it had placed as many as 9,000 DC households at increased risk of lead exposure, the DC City Council passed a lead poisoning prevention bill that focused exclusively on lead-based paint hazards and made no mention whatsoever of tap water as a potentially significant source of lead as well.
This troubling history is the Campaign for Lead Free Water’s North Star for addressing lead in the District’s water in a public health protective, science-based, justice-centered, and equitable way. Specifically, we believe that any bill aiming to protect DC residents from lead in water must be built on the principle of “reparative justice” – namely, shifting the burden of unjust harm from the victims to those who caused, or were complicitous, in the harm.
Our recommendations to the Washington, DC City Council were developed with this commitment in mind. Select highlights include:
Recommendations centered on the need to protect public health proactively, effectively, and immediately:
Addressing lead in water comprehensively by focusing on not only LSL replacement but also resident protection from all sources of lead in water.
Mandating a community-centered and community-led Filter-First public education and training program.
Recommendations centered on relevant insights from the science of lead in water:
Adopting the presumption that lead-bearing plumbing is present in every DC building – no matter its age and the presence or absence of a LSL – and that every DC tap poses a health risk vis-à-vis lead.
Prohibiting the use by DC Water of adjectives such as “safe” and “healthy” to characterize the District’s water quality simply because federal Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) requirements are met.
Requiring adequate proof that all five portions of a service line – namely:
from the water main to the start of the service line (including corporation stops and connectors),
from the start of the service line to the water meter,
in and around the water meter (e.g., water meter, water meter setter, connectors),
from the water meter to the exterior wall of the building, and
from the exterior wall of the building into the building (i.e., the first shutoff valve)
are ‘non-lead’ before declaring that the service line is fully replaced.
Recommendations centered on environmental and reparative justice principles:
Mandating full LSL replacement at no direct or indirect cost to DC residents.
Prohibiting and/or forgiving all or some of the DC Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection’s (DCRA) astronomical permitting costs (estimated in the range of $100 million), as well as some of the DC Department of Transportation’s (DDOT) astronomical road restoration costs (estimated in the range of $400 million).
Mandating an oversight mechanism headed by a DC Department of Energy & Environment (DOEE) oversight committee (or an independent audit committee under the aegis of DOEE) that includes DC residents who:
Represent all District Wards, the District’s demographic diversity, and different types of relevant expertise, and
Are financially independent from DC Water.
Recommendations centered on equity concerns:
Mandating a public education and outreach campaign, which:
Is overseen by a DOEE oversight committee (or an independent audit committee under the aegis of DOEE) and includes DC health workers who represent all District Wards, as well as the District’s demographic diversity, and who are financially independent from DC Water,
Is led by community health workers who represent all District Wards as well as the District’s demographic diversity and who are financially independent from DC Water, and
Provides routine information about LSL replacement, lead in water more broadly, and a Filter-First approach for preventing exposures.
Requiring community-based organizations hired to work on any aspect of DC’s lead-in-water program to be headquartered in DC and led and governed by DC residents; additionally, allowing as part of such hiring the inclusion of organizationally unaffiliated DC residents who desire employment in DC’s lead-in-water program.