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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 114 / Wednesday, June 16, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
Regulations: Lead and Copper Rule Revisions LCRR, which was published in the Federal Register on January 15, 2021. EPA is also delaying the January 16, 2024 compliance date established in the LCRR to October 16, 2024. The delay in the effective date is consistent with presidential directives issued on January 20, 2021, to the heads of Federal agencies to review certain regulations, including the LCRR. The delay will allow sufficient time for EPA to complete its review of the rule in accordance with those directives and conduct important consultations with affected parties. The delay in the compliance date of the LCRR ensures that any delay in the effective date will not reduce the time provided for drinking water systems and primacy states to take actions needed to assure compliance with the LCRR.
Effective date: This final rule is effective December 16, 2021.
Delayed effective date: As of June 16, 2021, the effective date of the final rule published on January 15, 2021, at 86 FR
4198, and then delayed in a rule published March 12, 2021, at 86 FR
14003, is furthered delayed until December 16, 2021.
Compliance date: The compliance date for the final rule published on January 15, 2021, at 86 FR 4198, is delayed until October 16, 2024.

DATES:

EPA has established a docket for this action under Docket ID
No. EPAHQOW20170300. All documents in the docket are listed on the https www.regulations.gov website. Although listed in the index, some information is not publicly available, e.g., confidential business information CBI or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute.
Certain other material, such as copyrighted material, is not placed on the internet and will be publicly available only in hard copy form.
Publicly available docket materials are available electronically through https
www.regulations.gov.

ADDRESSES:

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Jeffrey Kempic, Standards and Risk Management Division, Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water, U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, 1200
Pennsylvania Ave NW, Mail Code 4607M, Washington, D.C. 20460;
telephone number: 202 5644880 TTY
8008778339; email address:
kempic.jeffrey@epa.gov. For more information visit https www.epa.gov/
dwreginfo/lead-and-copper-rule.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

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I. Purpose of the Regulatory Action On January 15, 2021, EPA published in the Federal Register the National Primary Drinking Water Regulation:
Lead and Copper Rule Revisions 86
FR 4198 LCRR with an effective date of March 16, 2021, and a compliance date of January 16, 2024. On January 20, 2021, President Biden issued the Executive Order on Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis. 86 FR 7037, January 25, 2021
Executive Order 13990. Section 1 of Executive Order 13990 states that our nation has an abiding commitment to empower our workers and communities;
promote and protect our public health and the environment; and conserve our national treasures and monuments, places that secure our national memory.
Where the Federal Government has failed to meet that commitment in the past, it must advance environmental justice. In carrying out this charge, the Federal Government must be guided by the best science and be protected by processes that ensure the integrity of Federal decision-making. It is, therefore, the policy of the Administration to listen to the science, to improve public health and protect our environment, to ensure access to clean air and water, to limit exposure to dangerous chemicals and pesticides, to hold polluters accountable, including those who disproportionately harm communities of color and low-income communities, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to bolster resilience to the impacts of climate change, to restore and expand our national treasures and monuments, and to prioritize both environmental justice and the creation of the wellpaying union jobs necessary to deliver on these goals. Section 2 of Executive Order 13990 directs the heads of all Federal agencies to immediately review regulations that may be inconsistent with, or present obstacles to, the policy set forth in Section 1 of Executive Order 13990. The January 20, 2021 White House Fact Sheet: List of Agency Actions for Review, identified the LCRR as an agency action to be reviewed in conformance with Executive Order 13990 https
www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/
statements-releases/2021/01/20/factsheet-list-of-agency-actions-for-review/.
In conducting its review, EPA will carefully consider the concerns raised by stakeholders, including disadvantaged communities that have been disproportionately impacted, states that administer national primary drinking water regulations, consumer
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and environmental organizations, water systems, and other organizations.
Stakeholders have a range of concerns about the LCRR. For example, a primary source of lead exposure in drinking water is lead service lines. Stakeholders have raised concerns that despite the significance of this source of lead, the LCRR fails to require, or create adequate incentives, for public water systems to replace all of their lead service lines. In addition, stakeholders have raised concerns that portions of many lead service lines are privately owned and disadvantaged homeowners may not be able to afford the cost of replacing their portion of the lead service line and may not have this significant source of lead exposure removed if their water system does not provide financial assistance.
Other stakeholders have raised concerns regarding the significant costs public water systems and communities would face to replace all lead service lines.
Based upon information from the Economic Analysis for the Final Lead and Copper Rule, EPA estimates that there are between 6.3 and 9.3 million lead service lines nationally and the cost of replacing all of these lines is between $25 and $56 billion.
Another key element of the LCRR
relates to requiring public water systems to conduct an inventory of lead service lines so that systems know the scope of the problem, can identify potential sampling locations, and can communicate with households that are or may be served by lead service lines to inform them of the actions they may take to reduce their risks. Some stakeholders have raised concerns that the LCRRs inventory requirements are not sufficiently rigorous to ensure that consumers have access to useful information about the locations of lead service lines in their community. Other stakeholders have raised concerns that water systems do not have accurate records about the composition of privately owned portions of lead service lines and also concerns about public water systems publicly releasing information regarding privately owned property.
A core component of the LCRR is maintaining an action level of 15
parts per billion ppb, which serves as a trigger for certain actions by public water systems such as lead service line replacement and public education. The LCRR did not modify the existing lead action level but established a 10 ppb trigger level to require public water systems to initiate actions to decrease their lead levels and take proactive steps to remove lead from the distribution system. Some stakeholders support this new trigger level, while others argue
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