S-2587 : Still Just a Bill

Copper and Lead Evaluation and Reporting Act of 2016 or the CLEAR Act

This bill amends the Safe Drinking Water Act to require the Environmental Protection Agency to promulgate new lead and copper regulations that would set a health-based, household action level for lead and copper that triggers: (1) a consumer notification of drinking water contamination; (2) a report to the appropriate public health agency; and (3) an examination by the public water system of service line material and, if applicable, the removal of lead portions of the service line.

That action level must be based on the amount of lead that would result in a blood lead level greater than five micrograms per deciliter in an average, healthy infant who consumes infant formula made with water.

The regulations must also:

• provide outreach about the health risk and protection available to consumers with known or suspected lead service lines, institutions and facilities that serve other vulnerable populations, and the caregivers and health care providers of those consumers or populations;
• require reporting by public water systems for each monitoring period to the populations they serve on information concerning lead and copper levels;
• require public water systems to provide a public statement of lead service line ownership where a community has such lines;
• modify monitoring requirements to provide for voluntary, consumer-requested tap samples for lead; and
• provide for utilizing the results of those samples.