WISCONSIN STATE SENATOR LENA TAYLOR (continued)
1. EPA’s messaging must:
Be accurate and consistent. The information disseminated by the Milwaukee Health Department is often erroneous, leaving people in harm's way and school communities almost completely in the dark about the ubiquity and severity of lead-in-water contamination. Correcting this messaging has required Senator Taylor to joins hands with community advocates to educate themselves about lead corrosion and lead release and to work hard to convince Wisconsin state officials that Milwaukee residents are being misled. This is not a sustainable dynamic for ensuring maximal public health protection from lead in water.
Center on the LCR’s health-based standard of zero parts per billion lead in water. Public messaging must disclose unequivocally that any concentration of lead in water poses a health risk. To date, Milwaukee's city government has been using the LCR’s 15 parts per billion technical standard—which was set to assess the effectiveness of a water utility’s corrosion control treatment and is not health-based—as a cover for neglecting residents whose taps measure between 1 and 14 parts per billion lead. Additionally, the Milwaukee water utility has used its regulatory compliance with this standard—which helps water utilities prevent severe citywide contamination, but not severe contamination at individual taps—to dismiss Senator Taylor's concerns about severe contamination at individual taps, even when residents’ lead readings are significantly higher than those of residents in Flint, Michigan during Flint's highly publicized water crisis.
Spell out the health benefits of lead service line replacement, while making it clear that such replacement will not eliminate lead from people’s water. The public must be told the truth about the presence of lead-bearing plumbing (e.g., leaded solder, leaded brass) in almost all buildings and the significant health risk this presence poses. Messaging must also disclose that lead-certified point-of-use filters—when properly installed, maintained, and replaced—are necessary for maximal health protection.
Reach all residents, including school communities (parents, teachers, administrators).
2. EPA must ensure that lead service line replacement programs at the local level align with the timelines and goals of the Biden Administration's highly publicized lead service line replacement initiative.