principle 4

To protect themselves and hold their government officials accountable, people must be empowered with access to accurate and complete information about lead in drinking water and how lead-in-water regulations work.The federal law in place to protect consumers from lead in drinking water must be updated to reflect current scientific understanding about the leaching of lead from plumbing materials.

• People have a right to know that the federal Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) does not require lead-free water at the tap, despite scientific consensus that no level of lead in water is safe for human consumption. To this end, states and utilities must inform their constituents that they have responsibilities for self-protection under the LCR. Water utilities, states, and EPA should also inform people about the responsibilities that those agencies have for providing public health protection.
   

• States and water utilities must ensure that people have free access to all lead-in-water data, decisions, actions, and documents pertaining to their water utility’s implementation of and compliance with the LCR.
   

• People – and especially pregnant women and parents of infants and young children – must be given complete and accurate information about the prevalence and sources of lead in drinking water, health harm associated with ingestion of lead in water, as well as measures they can take to prevent exposures. People also must receive such information in their spoken language and through culturally appropriate and effective channels of communication.
   

• People must be informed by their water utility whether the service line that delivers water to their home contains lead. They should also be given free access to lead testing and timely delivery of lead testing results, coupled with accurate information about what those results mean and do not mean.