Michigan recently proposed changes to a drinking water safeguard known as the Lead and Copper Rule, which is supposed to help remove lead from drinking water.
As the graphic below illustrates, water mains deliver water to the street then the water flows through service lines into our homes.
In Michigan, roughly 500,000 houses are connected to the water main by lead service lines, which are a source of lead contamination for drinking water.
In Michigan—and in most places around the country—water utilities require homeowners to cover the cost of replacing the portion of the pipe that runs from the property line to the home.
If residents do not replace the pipe due to their inability to pay or as the result of ineffective utility education and outreach programs, then the utility will often replace only the portion of the pipe that runs from the water main in the street to the curb.
First, as the name suggests, a partial replacement leaves lead pipes in the ground.
Because lead pipes are a source of lead contaminated drinking water, failure to remove the entire pipe leaves the source of lead contamination in place.
The EPA’s Science Advisory Board noted that partial replacements “have not been shown to reliably reduce drinking water lead levels in the short term, ranging from days to months, and potentially even longer.” Further, there is no financial case to be made for partial lead pipe replacement.
While the proposed rule’s stated goal is the removal of all lead pipes delivering water to homes, it contains significant loopholes that would allow water systems to accelerate partial replacements.
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality is taking comments on their suggested changes to the Lead and Copper Rule until March 21st.

Jason Minto/The News Journal/USA TODAY Recent water woes in Delaware have included groundwater contamination in at least two Sussex County towns, which environmental regulators are now investigating.
The spate of water safety issues has prompted one group to hold a public forum about it Wednesday evening.
The League of Women Voters of Sussex County will present the forum, "Safe Drinking Water?
Last fall, Mountaire Farms’ Millsboro-area plant was cited for spraying highly contaminated effluent on hundreds of acres of surrounding farm fields.
That wastewater, which was largely untreated due to problems at the plant’s wastewater treatment facility, included high levels of nitrogen and fecal coliform.
Tests revealed private wells had high levels of nitrates, which can cause birth defects, miscarriages and other health impacts.
Since then, a carbon-filtration system has been installed on the town’s water supply.
"Public insistence on the need for long-term solutions is critical as County Council reviews the final draft of the 2018 Sussex County Comprehensive Plan before submitting it to the state for approval," the League stated in a release.
The group will host a panel of people in the environmental, medical and activist sectors.
The News Journal’s Maddy Lauria contributed to this report.

FOX 12’s Nick Krupke met a group of running mothers in Scappoose who are hitting the trails to help curb the global water crisis.
Five moms in Columbia County are pushing beyond their limits to make a world of change.
“Sixty-three million people around the world don’t have clean drinking water and we were listening to story after story of moms and what they have to do for their children, walking four to six hours a day just to get clean drinking water and our hearts were definitely moved,” said Katrina Sharp, a mother of two.
“We are running moms and we can actually do a fundraiser.
We have Highway 30 here along the beautiful Columbia River and we were thinking, ‘We can do a 30 for 30 on Highway 30,’” Sharp said.
“I’ve had a lot of experiences in my life as a nurse where I see firsthand the impact that a lack of clean water can have and it is a global crisis,” Rotter said.
Not just water, but clean water.” Mom Alison Kangas said, “The idea of a finish line is really cool for us because there is always a finish line when you sign up for a race and we are working to see the end of the global water crisis ended in our lifetime and see that finish line.” The mothers from St. Helens, Scappoose and Warren are thinking above and beyond themselves.
“I think when you know that 663 million people don’t have access to clean water, when you know that one in 10 people on this planet don’t have access to clean water, you can’t help but not feel compelled to do something about it,” said Ashley Strausser, a mom of three.
While Kangas and Sharp are training for the full 30 miles, the other three moms, including former University of Portland runner Rotter, will be on a relay.
The moms wanted to make sure to get a shout out to their husbands and mother-in-laws that help them get away for their long training runs on the weekends.

According to the official data, around 65 per cent population in Jammu and Kashmir have access to tap water of which 34.7 per cent get water from treated sources and 29.2 percent from untreated sources.
The rest population gets water from springs, lakes, canals and other water bodies.
Medical experts are of the opinion that the percentage of people in J&K suffering from various abdominal disorders, including liver and kidney ailments are the result of consumption of untreated water.
There has been sharp increase in water borne diseases for the past several years which health experts in their reports had mentioned that these diseases had emerged due to supplying of “contamination and unfiltered” water to the people.
A PHE official wishing anonymity said, “The rickety apparatus for water testing, and poor state of existing water supply schemes was resulting in poor quality of drinking water in Kashmir.” He added that in many areas of Kashmir, especially the rural ones, water was supplied through pumping stations that neither had a filtration plant, nor a reservoir.
“The water is just lifted and pumped, without any treatment.
However, people complain that unfiltered and muddy tap water was being supplied to them without any filtration being done.
In J&K thousands of water supply schemes were taken up for execution over the years, majority of them have not been completed thus forcing people to consume water from the contaminated sources.
Official sources said that around 1,900 water supply schemes have been started by the successive governments in the eight years in the state.
While for Leh and Kargil districts of Ladakh region, 149 such schemes have been allotted.

Drinking water in three Macomb and St. Clair county communities tested positive for contamination, according to state environmental officials.
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality found perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, in water in New Baltimore, Mount Clemens and Ira Township, MLive reported.
The department issued letters March 2 alerting residents to the presence of the substances, which have been used in non-stick cookware, stain resistant fabrics and firefighting foams.
The chemicals have been linked to cancer, thyroid disorders, elevated cholesterol and other diseases.
Current contamination levels don’t pose any significant danger, the department said.
"I want to assure the residents of the city that their water is safe to drink and that a boil water advisory has not been issued," New Baltimore Mayor John Dupray said.
"I will be attending a meeting with the MDEQ early next week to discuss this issue in greater detail.
We strive to provide the highest quality water possible and will continue to do so."
Last year, Gov.
Plainfield Township, the Saginaw-Midland Corp., Huron Shores Regional Water Authority system in Tawas, Ann Arbor, Grayling and the village of Sparta have also detected PFAS in their water.

Drinking water pipelines and open drains side by side in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh Guntur, Andhra Pradesh: In a massive outbreak of gastroenteritis, 10 people have reportedly died in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh; officials put the number of deaths at four in the last week.
Reports say, negligence on the part of civic officials and staff led to widespread water contamination.
It’s a near-epidemic situation, said the District Medical Officer Yasmin.
Hospitals have been flooded with patients complaining of vomiting, frequent motions and fever.
The District Collector, K Sasidhar, has done a door to door survey with health officials and has asked the health centres to stock up necessary medicines and IV fluids.
Teams to inspect the water supply pipelines have been formed by Mr Sasidhar, who is personally overseeing repair of leakages.
Special medical camps have been organised in the worst affected colonies of Anandapet, Sangadigunta, Old Guntur, Ali Nagar, KVP Colony and Sarada Colony.
An emergency meeting was called by the Municipal Commissioner C. Anuradha on Saturday, after which super chlorination was done to control contamination.
Ripe garbage and open drains next to drinking water points have been seen in several localities of Guntur.
Bottled water is also not available as the authorities have cracked down on local bottling plants to stop contamination.

The water crisis in India According to Water.org, 163 million Indians are currently living without access to safe and clean water.
Last year, WaterAid’s ‘State of the World’s Water‘ report disclosed that 63.4 million people in rural areas are living without access to clean drinking water, which is more than any other country.
Most of the rural drinking water comes from wells, hand-pumps, and tube-wells, as the scattered population is not ideal for a piped system.
Women, children, and economics: The unseen consequences Lack of access to water is one of the major causes of the feminisation of poverty (disproportionate impact of poverty on women as compared to men) in India.
Empowering women is critical to solving the nation’s water crisis.
Even school-going children find themselves on the losing side as the family water-collection duties take time away from study and play.
On the other hand, Piramal Sarvajal deploys another innovative and technological solution for creating affordable access to safe drinking water—that of Water ATMs.
The Water ATM technology was also used in Rajasthan as part of Cairn India’s ‘Jeevan Amrit Project,’ where kiosks with Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants were installed in villages like Aakdada, Batyu, Bhakharpur, Guda, Jogasar, and Kawas with the aim of making potable water available at the doorsteps of the local community.
Moreover, since these machines are portable, the facility can also be availed in the surrounding areas and hamlets at an additional cost of less than Rs 2.
For this Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, Cairn India has undertaken a collaboration with the Rajasthan Government’s Public Health Engineering Department, Tata Projects, and the concerned village Panchayats.

Even before Hurricane Maria struck the island nearly six months ago, the majority of Puerto Rico’s residents lived with water that violated health standards set by the U.S. law.
For more, we’re also joined in Washington, D.C., by Mekela Panditharatne, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council, who just got back from Puerto Rico, her recent piece in The New York Times headlined “Puerto Rico Needs More Than Bandages,” also wrote The Washington Post op-ed ”FEMA says most of Puerto Rico has potable water.
Now, AES has been producing coal ash, and that has been deposited in landfills scattered across Puerto Rico, including in a community called Peñuelas, which has been really a locus in these environmental justice fights.
AMY GOODMAN: And so, how did the storm affect the coal ash contamination?
MEKELA PANDITHARATNE: The plant is still running.
AMY GOODMAN: As you mentioned, in Puerto Rico’s southern town of Peñuelas, residents have been fighting for years to stop this private company, Applied Energy Systems, or AES, from dumping the coal ash in a landfill next to their community.
AMY GOODMAN: Mekela, what are people demanding now in Puerto Rico, as we wrap up?
So, what we’d really want to see is significant investment into drinking water infrastructure and also into securing these coal ash contamination sites and preventing further leaching of these contaminants into people’s water sources.
BEN EATON: We are demanding the—we are demanding the landfill to put in more and better preventions of this coal ash being dumped on us, better protection to keep it from leaking or seeping into our waterway or into the soil to kill off all the crops in that area.
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Jowhar hospital is currently treating 38 people, mostly children, for diarrhoea.
The director of the Intersos-run hospital, Abdirahman Ali Abdirahman, told Radio Ergo that people in the district were drinking contaminated water from holes dug in the dry river bed.
The water scarcity had lowered standards of hygiene and sanitation, leaving households unable to wash regularly or to clean cooking utensils.
He also requested health agencies and the Hirshabelle regional state administration to work together to give people access to safe drinking water as well as toilet facilities to curb the spread of disease.
The villages where the disease is spreading include Tugaarey, Gololey, Madah-gisi, Labo-waab, Raqayle, El-adde, Jamaac’o iyo Ali-waraabey in Jowhar district.
He said they were receiving free treatment and were recovering.
Alasow said both adult siblings had fallen sick one night while they were out hunting antelopes.
This is a new economic activity for local farmers, who lost all their crops in consecutive failed rainy seasons.
He said that seven people had died of diarrhoea in El-adde.
Faay Haji Ali told Radio Ergo by phone that her husband died of diarrhoea three days ago in Tugaarey village, seven km outside Jowhar.

However, the report also shows a connection between the shallow aquifer where toxins were found and the deeper Memphis Sand Aquifer that provides the city’s drinking water.
TVA began investigating last year after toxins ended up in wells that monitor pollution from coal ash ponds at its Allen Fossil Plant in Memphis.
The shallow monitoring wells are near far deeper wells drilled directly into the Memphis Sand Aquifer.
The TVA had planned to use the deeper wells to cool a nearby natural gas plant that will replace the coal plant later this year, but it has decided it will not use the cooling wells at this time.
Discovery of the toxins raised concerns from Memphis residents and environmental groups that the contaminants could seep from the shallow Alluvial aquifer where the monitoring wells are located into the deeper Sand Aquifer that supplies the city’s slightly-sweet drinking water.
A layer of clay about 30 to 70 feet thick separates the two aquifers.
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The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation stated at the time that news of the toxins’ existence was released that the department was confident the contaminants "are not impacting drinking water."
Still, the department asked Memphis Light, Gas & Water — the city’s water utility — to test treated drinking water, and it came up clean.
TVA is planning to buy water from Memphis Light, Gas & Water for daily operations, it said.