EPA to strengthen lead protections in drinking water after multiple crises, including Flint

By MICHAEL PHILLIS and MIKE STOBBE
Associated Press

The Environmental Protection Agency will soon strengthen lead in drinking water regulations. Lead levels have dropped drastically over the last several decades. Lead in drinking water has improved, too, but it’s remained a stubborn problem. Lead in tap water is difficult to regulate and advocates had to push hard to enact the first set of comprehensive rules in the early 1990s. Those rules helped but didn’t prevent crisis in Washington D.C., Flint, Michigan, and other communities. Some experts say the existing rules need to be enforced better, others say there are fundamental problems with the regulations that need to be fixed.