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Trump Admin Moves Ahead With Biden’s 10-Year Deadline for Lead Pipe Replacements
Replacing lead storage lines is the only way to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act’s mandate to prevent anticipated adverse health effects, the EPA said.
The Trump administration on Feb. 20 affirmed a 10-year deadline for most cities and towns to replace dangerous lead pipes, informing a federal court that it will maintain a major drinking water overhaul finalized in October 2024 under the Biden administration.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) notified the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that it will continue with the strongest overhaul to lead-in-water standards in three decades.
“After intensive stakeholder involvement, EPA concluded that the only way to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act’s mandate to prevent anticipated adverse health effects ‘to the extent feasible’ is to require replacement of lead service lines,” the agency’s court filing reads. It states that a 10-year timeline is doable.
The utility industry has mounted a legal challenge to the upgrade.
The American Water Works Association filed a lawsuit to prevent the new rule from going into effect. It contended that the EPA does not have authority over private property pipe sections. It also argued that the deadline cannot be met because of labor shortages, other infrastructure needs, and other concerns.
“People power and years of lead-contaminated communities fighting to clean up tap water have made it a third rail to oppose rules to protect our health from the scourge of toxic lead,” said Erik Olson, senior director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group.
The EPA stated that water utilities can replace entire lines and that data from dozens of systems demonstrate that most can meet the timeline. Utilities have three years to prepare for repairs before the start of the 10-year deadline. Some high-lead cities were granted extensions.
In November 2025, the EPA earmarked $3 billion in funds for states to reduce lead in drinking water. The Biden administration in 2024 gave Wisconsin $2.6 billion to replace lead pipes.
The Lead and Copper Rule Improvements mandate that approximately 67,000 public water systems replace lead service lines within 10 years of compliance deadlines that begin after a three-year preparation period.
The EPA underscores that lead has no safe exposure level and that the primary source of lead exposure is pipes.
Lead, a neurotoxin once widely deployed in plumbing, can harm the development of children and increase blood pressure in adults. The rule lowers the level that requires utility mitigation to 10 parts per billion, down from 15, and mandates full lead service line replacement when elevated levels are recorded.
Kimberly Hayek is a reporter for The Epoch Times. She covers California news and has worked as an editor and on scene at the U.S.-Mexico border during the 2018 migrant caravan crisis.
