Trump Administration Keeps Biden’s Strict Lead Pipe Replacement Rules

The Trump administration announced it will maintain the previous administration's aggressive 10-year deadline for cities to replace dangerous lead pipes. The Environmental Protection Agency is defending the strict water safety standards against legal challenges from utility companies.

WASHINGTON — In a surprising move, the Trump administration announced Friday it will maintain stringent requirements forcing most municipalities to eliminate dangerous lead pipes within a decade, continuing to support rigorous water safety regulations established during the Biden presidency.

The Environmental Protection Agency informed a federal appeals court in the nation’s capital that it would uphold the most comprehensive revision of lead-contaminated water regulations in thirty years, despite legal opposition from utility industry groups.

While the current Trump administration has generally pursued rapid elimination of regulations, including loosening restrictions on air and water pollution controls, officials are taking a different stance regarding drinking water safety. On the same day, the administration eliminated strict controls on mercury and other dangerous emissions from coal-fired power plants.

“Following extensive consultation with stakeholders, EPA determined that the sole method to meet the Safe Drinking Water Act’s requirement to prevent expected negative health impacts ‘to the extent feasible’ is to mandate the replacement of lead service lines,” according to the agency’s legal document.

The agency maintained that meeting this goal within ten years is achievable, supporting regulations that were partially based on evidence showing previous approaches using chemical treatments and monitoring to control lead “did not succeed in preventing widespread lead contamination and extensive negative health consequences.”

In August, the EPA indicated its intention to support the previous administration’s comprehensive regulations while also stating it would “create new resources and guidance to provide practical implementation flexibility and regulatory transparency.” This language raised concerns among environmental advocates who feared the agency might introduce exemptions.

Lead, a toxic heavy metal previously widespread in materials including pipes and paint, damages the nervous system and can impair children’s growth, reduce intelligence levels, and elevate blood pressure in adults. When lead pipes deteriorate, they can poison drinking water supplies. The earlier Trump administration’s regulations were less stringent and did not require complete pipe replacement.

The Biden administration completed its lead-contaminated water reforms in 2024. The new rules required utilities to address lead contamination at reduced concentrations, establishing just 10 parts per billion as the action threshold, reduced from the previous 15 parts per billion. When elevated levels were detected, water systems were required to notify customers, implement immediate corrective measures, and work toward replacing lead pipes, which typically represent the primary source of lead contamination in drinking water.

Officials from the Biden administration projected at the time that these enhanced standards would safeguard as many as 900,000 babies from low birth weight and prevent approximately 1,500 early deaths annually from cardiovascular disease.

“Community advocacy and years of lead-poisoned neighborhoods demanding clean tap water have made opposing health protection rules against toxic lead politically untouchable. Perhaps only an inflexible water utility trade organization would dare challenge this fundamental public health protection,” stated Erik Olson, senior director at the Natural Resource Defense Council, an environmental advocacy organization.

The American Water Works Association, representing utility companies, contested the regulations in court, claiming the EPA overstepped its authority by attempting to regulate pipe sections located on private property and therefore cannot mandate water systems to replace them.

The agency responded Friday that utilities can be compelled to replace complete lead pipes because they maintain adequate control over these systems.

The AWWA also argued the ten-year timeline was unrealistic, pointing to difficulties securing adequate workforce for the project and noting that water utilities simultaneously face other major infrastructure demands. Water utilities received three years for preparation before the decade-long replacement period begins, with some cities having extensive lead pipe networks granted additional time.

The agency stated it carefully examined information from numerous water utilities and determined that most could complete lead pipe replacement within ten years or sooner.

The initial lead and copper regulations for drinking water were implemented by the EPA over three decades ago. While these rules substantially decreased lead levels in water, critics argued they allowed cities to respond too slowly when contamination levels increased.

Lead pipes are predominantly located in older, industrial regions of the nation, including metropolitan areas like Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee. The updated regulations also modify how lead concentrations are calculated, potentially substantially increasing the number of communities found in violation.

The EPA under President Donald Trump has emphasized deregulation efforts. Officials have worked to reduce climate change initiatives and encourage fossil fuel development. However, their initial approach to drinking water matters has shown more complexity.

In March, for instance, the EPA revealed plans to partially reverse regulations targeting so-called “forever chemicals” in drinking water — the other significant tap water protection from the Biden era. This modification aimed to maintain strict limits for certain common PFAS while proposing to eliminate and reconsider standards for other varieties and extend implementation timelines.

Both PFAS and lead pipes represent expensive risks to water safety. Some federal funding exists to assist communities with these challenges.

The Biden administration calculated approximately 9 million lead pipes supply water to residential and commercial properties across the United States. The Trump administration revised this analysis and currently estimates roughly 4 million lead pipes exist. Methodological changes, including presuming that communities failing to provide data lack lead pipes, caused this substantial difference. The updated estimate does address questionable results from certain states — advocates noted that the agency’s original projections for Florida, for example, appeared excessively high.

The EPA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The AWWA referenced their existing court documents when contacted for a statement.