EPA Drafts Plan to Cut Lead in Nation’s Water

The Environmental Protection Agency today proposed new regulations to reduce levels of lead in the nation’s drinking water supply, a move that would curb exposure to a metal that can cause mental retardation in children and high blood pressure in adults.

“This proposal will reduce lead in the drinking water of 138 million Americans and will be especially beneficial to young children, who are at much greater risk than adults,” EPA Administrator Lee M. Thomas said in a statement.

The proposed rules would require as many as 53,000 public drinking water supply systems in the country to treat water so that it does not pick up as much lead and to participate in public education programs, the EPA said.

EPA spokesman Dave Ryan said there was no precise date for the start-up of the program because the rules must be published in the Federal Register. Interested parties will then be allowed to comment on the proposals.

But Ryan said Congress has given the government a deadline of June, 1989, to do something about lead levels. In 1986, Congress amended the Safe Drinking Water Act to deal with lead.

Effects Described

High concentrations of lead in the blood have been associated with a variety of health problems. For example, lead can impair mental ability in children, cause premature births, delay physical and mental development of babies, cause kidney damage, interfere with hearing and increase blood pressure in adults.

EPA said the new regulations could cause the blood-lead levels of as many as 700,000 children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years to fall below 10 to 15 milligrams per deciliter, the range above which adverse health effects begin.

EPA said the annual cost of the proposal is about $267 million.