On Friday morning, the Flint Water Interagency Coordinating Committee (FWICC) outlined their proposals to reform the federal Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) for Michigan to follow.  The LCR is a federal regulation aimed at controlling lead and copper in the drinking water and can only be altered nationally via federal action.  The Environmental Protection Agency told Congress on Wednesday that the agency would not have reforms ready until early 2017.

The reforms proposed today by the FWICC Policy Subcommittee aim to help Michigan go beyond the LCR and provide better protection to residents.  Highlights of the reforms include:

• Require annual lead and copper testing for all schools, day cares, adult foster care facilitates, substance abuse clinics, and public hearing facilities.
• Creation of an Advisory Commission on Drinking Water Quality to continually asses and make recommendations regarding science, testing, monitoring protocols, water treatments, and corrosion controls.
• Require each public water system serving more than five hundred customers to create a Water System Advisory Council responsible for local oversight and input.
• Require disclosure of lead service line status in all home sales and rental contracts.
• Require public water systems to follow defined corrosion control treatment standards.
• The complete inventory of all public service line materials up to interior meters, completed by public water systems.
• Require every public water system to adopt a full lead service line replacement program within ten years.
• Enforce water treatment protections by establishing state fines for violations of state rules to assure accountability and transparency.

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