The following is a message sent from the Illinois Section of the American Water Works Assn.
During the past month, the ISAWWA Water Utility Council has been very actively reviewing and commenting on an Amendment to SB 550 that is being cited as Lead in Drinking Water Prevention Act.
While the WUC agrees improvements to the current Federal Lead and Copper Rule are necessary, the Illinois General Assembly is moving beyond reasonable with the proposed requirements.
The Illinois Section is recommending you reach out to your State Senators and Representatives immediately to oppose this Bill. This Bill could reach the floor for a vote as early as next week and it is strongly supported by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office.
While there a several requirements of the Bill that we agree with, especially improved public communication and education, the requirements go to extreme measures requiring notification to be made by numerous methods (electronic, website, and direct mail) versus one or the other.
The most disturbing aspect of the Bill is the new number of lead sampling sites. The Bill increases current numbers by a factor of 10.
This requirement is likely to cost Illinois communities hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in increased sampling costs on top of already stressed budgets fighting for infrastructure investment.
The Illinois Section supports the IEPA’s recent improvements to the Lead/Copper Rule as outlined in their April 18, 2016 letter to all Illinois Public Water Supplies as being measured and reasonable while the Federal lead and copper rulemaking is being addressed. We strongly suggest the Illinois General Assembly resist the temptation to create legislation that could ultimately conflict with future changes to that rule.
Source: Illinois AWWA
