But local governments warn that the rules are needlessly expensive, likely unconstitutional and won’t necessarily improve public health.
The most ambitious aspect of the regulations would require water utilities to replace all lead service lines (the pipes that connect water mains to buildings) within the next 20 years.
State environmental regulators also want to lower the threshold of lead taken from home water samples that would trigger more scrutiny of a utility’s water system.
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The proposal requires utilities to keep track of where lead service lines are in their system; improves water testing to make sure they measure lead exposure in both fixtures and service lines; and guarantees that lead service lines are eventually removed.
But many of the state’s cities and water utilities oppose the new rules, even if they agree that they want to keep lead out of the state’s drinking water.
If 10 percent of those samples contain more than 15 parts per billion of lead, the utility must take steps to address it, including the use of anticorrosive chemicals.
The new Michigan rules would change that threshold from 15 parts per billion to 12.
By making water utilities pay for lead service line replacements on private property, the MDEQ regulations would force utilities to use public ratepayer money to upgrade private infrastructure.
The state pegs the cost at about $500 million, based partly on the costs of replacing lead service lines in Flint.