Guest column: Michigan’s new lead rule for drinking water is six years old. How are we doing?
Michigan has the most stringent rules for preventing lead in drinking water. sonmez/iStock.
- Michigan's Lead and Copper Rule mandates the replacement of all lead service lines by 2041, increased water testing and stricter lead limits to reduce exposure to lead in Michigan water. According to preliminary estimates from water utilities, only 12-23% of service connections in the state of Michigan are expected to be made of lead.
- Some water systems with known or suspected lead service lines have not followed more stringent sampling protocols, allowing potentially higher lead levels to go undetected.
- Lead compliance data demonstrate that high lead results can still be found in water systems that are in compliance with the new requirements.
A decade ago, about 100,000 Flint residents were exposed to lead-contaminated drinking water. The Flint water crisis has become a stark reminder of the devastating consequences of negligence and allowing pipe materials that have been banned since 1988 to fester in our water systems.
If this catastrophe had a bright side, it’s that it led to the revision of Michigan's Lead and Copper Rule in 2018, the nation's most protective regulation aimed at reducing lead exposure in drinking water.
This rule mandates that water systems replace all lead service lines by 2041 and conduct increased water testing. It also reduces the amount of lead that triggers required actions to reduce exposure.
Despite its promise, implementing and enforcing these new requirements has been a bumpy ride. While important new data has been collected, not all of it is readily available to the general public. New sampling requirements are inconsistently implemented by local water departments and systems that are in compliance with the new rules still show alarming lead results.
As a water quality engineer with over 20 years of experience, including work at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, I’ve seen firsthand how critical it is for the public to stay vigilant and informed about government actions to ensure our drinking water remains safe.
The data tables below are designed so you can easily find data for your community in this article. I encourage you to look through and enter your own community name in the search bars to see how your community is doing with the new lead and copper rule. But don’t stop there - many of these tables have multiple pages of data for you to scroll through.
Now that we’ve completed five years of implementing these new rules, here’s what you need to know.
What are lead and copper, why are they dangerous, and why are they in our drinking water?
Lead and copper are metals that pose significant health risks when present in drinking water. Lead is a dangerous neurotoxin found in many plumbing systems and water fixtures, and it can seep into drinking water. There is no safe level of lead exposure, and lead has no useful purpose for the body. Lead is especially harmful to children, causing developmental delays, learning difficulties and other severe health issues.
Copper, while necessary for the body in small amounts, can cause gastrointestinal problems and liver or kidney damage at high levels. Many of Metro Detroit’s water systems have aging infrastructure. Lead enters drinking water through the corrosion of old pipes and plumbing fixtures. As these materials corrode, lead and copper can leach into the water supply, posing a serious public health concern.
This article is focused on lead because of its health impacts at the levels often found in drinking water. Copper is found less frequently at levels of concern in Michigan’s drinking water.
How and why did Michigan revise its Lead and Copper Rule for drinking water?
Michigan updated its Lead and Copper Rule for public drinking water supplies in 2018 to prevent another Flint water crisis and take a more proactive approach to addressing lead in drinking water. The first changes took effect in 2019, and others phased in over time. The rules do not apply to homes on private wells.
The new rules require water systems to remove all lead service lines, which are the largest sources of lead in drinking water, and use targeted sampling methods to better detect high lead levels.
The rule also requires drinking water systems to better communicate with the public about lead risks. These measures are intended to reduce lead exposure and keep residents informed on how to protect themselves from potential lead contamination.
Water systems where the 90th percentile sample result is higher than the lead action level are determined to have a “lead action level exceedance” and must take actions to reduce exposure.
A lead action level exceedance is not a violation. Violations only occur when a water system fails to complete the new requirements added after an exceedance. The current lead action level for a drinking water system is 15 ppb; that number will fall to 12 ppb in Michigan on January 1, 2025.
Under the revised Michigan Lead and Copper Rule, water suppliers have several new requirements to help reduce exposure to lead in drinking water. Here are the main changes:
Identify and notify residents about lead service lines in their community:
By October 16, 2024, all water suppliers must complete an inventory of their service line materials to identify where lead service lines are located. This date was updated from January 1, 2025 to align with national-level Lead and Copper Rule Revisions.
Residents must be notified in writing within 30 days if their home has a lead service line, ensuring they are aware of potential risks.
Replace lead service lines:
Water suppliers must replace all lead service lines, both public and private, at an average rate of 5% per year, ensuring they are replaced within 20 years and at no direct cost to the resident. If there is a lead action level exceedance, the replacement rate increases to 7% per year to accelerate the process.
Educate and communicate with the public
Water suppliers must include a section in their annual consumer confidence report explaining the lead levels detected and the health risks of lead and copper in drinking water, as well as information about their lead service line inventory.
Suppliers serving over 50,000 people must establish a community advisory council to improve outreach about lead in drinking water.
If there is a lead action level exceedance, suppliers must notify residents and distribute educational materials on how to reduce lead exposure.
Sample water at household taps and sample the 1st and 5th liter at locations with lead service lines
Public drinking water suppliers must collect water samples from high-risk buildings to monitor lead and copper levels. This helps track the effectiveness of corrosion control measures.
At locations with lead service lines, sampling involves collecting the first and fifth liter of water from the tap after at least 6 hours of no water use. The first liter represents water from household fixtures, and the fifth liter is more likely to represent water from the lead service line.
If the 90th percentile lead result exceeds the action level, suppliers must take further steps, including collecting source water samples, optimizing corrosion control, and accelerating lead service line replacements to 7% per year if necessary.
Under Michigan's 2018 Lead and Water Copper Rule, public water systems with known lead service lines must sample the first and fifth liter from a tap after six hours of no water use. Planet Detroit.
These changes aim to provide better protection from lead exposure and ensure safer drinking water for Michigan residents.
How many lead service lines are in Michigan and where are they?
About 26% of Michigan's approximately 1,395 community water systems report having possible lead service lines. These are usually found in older cities where many homes were built before lead service lines were banned in Michigan in 1988.
Up to 5 million people in Michigan live in areas with known or potential lead service lines, though not every home in these communities has one. Based on my analysis of the most recent available public data, between 12% and 23% of all water service connections in the state are made of lead and need to be replaced. Homes built before 1970 are most at risk, but this can vary by community.
Michigan’s drinking water rules require public water supplies to keep track of the materials used in their service lines. By January 1, 2020, these water supplies had to send a Preliminary Distribution System Materials Inventory to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE).
The goal of the inventory was for water supplies to check their records and report what they know and don't know about the materials in their service lines. This information is crucial for informing residents about their risk of lead exposure and planning lead service line replacement programs.
You can search this table to see the most recently available data published for your water system. Because this data may be out of date, it's best to check with your community water system:
Michigan requires the removal of all lead service lines by 2041. How are we doing now that we’re about 5 years into that requirement?
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) has yet to share statewide data on lead service line replacements, so we can't provide an update on progress.
Most community water systems in Michigan, including those in metro Detroit, need to replace fewer than 2,500 lead service lines, averaging about 125 replacements per year to meet the 2041 deadline. The city of Detroit estimates it costs $8,000-$10,000 per household to replace lead service lines.
Only 12 communities in Michigan have over 10,000 known or potential lead service lines (see the above chart). Based on EGLE’s published service line inventories, at least 61,050 lead service lines should have been replaced in Michigan by now.
How have new requirements for lead testing changed and how are water systems doing with compliance?
The 2018 Michigan Lead and Copper Rule requires water systems with lead service lines to collect samples from buildings with lead service lines, measuring lead in both the first and fifth liters of tap water. The fifth-liter sample better reflects lead levels from the lead service lines, identifying potentially higher lead levels that need to be reduced by improved corrosion control treatment. Water systems must collect samples at up to 100 sites annually based on population.
My analysis of recent EGLE data shows up to 163 communities with known or potential lead service lines that are not collecting fifth-liter samples, which suggests they are not sampling at lead service lines at all. This applies to about 10,000 known and 92,000 potential lead service lines, and about 326,000 people live in these communities. EGLE spokesperson Scott Dean noted the service line data is preliminary and outdated, with complete data expected in October for EGLE to be able to review whether proper sampling is being implemented at high-risk sites.
Nationwide, sampling at high-risk sites has been poorly enforced since the 1991 EPA Lead and Copper Rule, contributing to delayed crisis detection, like in Flint. Even with new Michigan requirements, inconsistencies, and delays persist in reporting and sampling lead service lines.
Communities with many unknown service lines have the potential to have lead service lines. For example, Clinton Township reported 14,475 and Westland reported 12,764 service lines of unknown material still to be investigated as of 2023. Neither of these systems has reported taking fifth-liter samples, but they still have the potential for lead service lines in their communities. State data, which we know to be outdated, reports higher numbers, indicating that these systems have made progress in working to identify and update their inventories.
Detroit and Warren have been collecting fifth-liter samples since the rule took effect. Detroit has over 2,000 known and 100,000 potential lead service lines, and Warren has 11,000 unknown lines, 1,000 of which are likely to be lead.
Some communities, like Huntington Woods and Bloomfield Township, with just a few known lead lines, reported having replaced all of them.
Because of the new rule, data is now available that allows residents to check their community's service line inventory and compliance data.
Water systems with potential lead service lines that aren’t sampling high-risk locations create public health uncertainty, may mislead residents about their safety, and may increase lead exposure risks. Elevated lead levels in drinking water can be mitigated with improved treatment or filters, but residents need accurate information to act.
You can search this table based on EGLE’s data to check your community, but it's best to follow up and verify with your local water system for the most current information.
Where is the new sampling detecting lead in Michigan water?
Compliance sampling in drinking water systems determines whether the system exceeds the lead action level and triggers actions to reduce consumers’ exposure. Compliance samples are typically collected by water system employees or residents, analyzed at certified laboratories, and reported to EGLE state regulators.
The following table shows all the lead 90th percentiles for all Michigan community water systems as of February 2024; for most systems, this reflects their 2023 compliance sampling.
My analysis of public compliance sampling data shows that Michigan’s Lead and Copper Rule has been effective at reducing lead action level exceedances in drinking water systems with lead service lines that collect fifth-liter samples. A comparison of exceedances between 2019 and 2023 indicates that the fifth-liter sampling protocol may be helping water systems improve corrosion control treatment and reduce overall lead levels.
The data shows substantial reductions in the percentage of systems with 90th percentiles exceeding different lead benchmarks. The percentage of systems with lead action level exceedances that sampled the fifth liter dropped from 13% in 2019 to 3% in 2023. On the other hand, systems that sampled the first liter only did not see much change in 90th percentile lead levels over that same time period.
Unfortunately, water systems can still have very high lead levels even when they do not exceed the lead action level. That's because samples that exceed the 90th percentile are not considered when calculating the lead level for a water system. Thus ten percent of compliance samples can have any level of lead – even very high levels.
Water supplies are required to notify the location of a lead result greater than the action level. Still, they are not required to notify anyone else in the water system—not even locations with similar risk factors like lead service lines and locations in the same neighborhood with similar water quality.
This data—the maximum lead level detected in a water supply—is only publicly available in locally published consumer confidence reports, which, in most cases, are not released until a year after the sampling is completed. These reports are required to be published or distributed by July 1 every year.
Even though 98% of Michigan community water systems were in compliance with the current and future lead action levels in 2023, data provided by EGLE via FOIA request reveal that 128 community water systems serving a combined population of 3.4 million people had compliance samples higher than the upcoming lead action level of 12 ppb, with some individual samples up to 400 times the action level. Not every water utility is required to sample every year. This analysis included 2023 sampling data for 727 water systems; data were not reported for 659 water systems in 2023.
Only 15 of these systems, those with current lead action level exceedances, must implement additional steps to address these high lead levels. This means that in the 113 systems without lead action level exceedances, residents in homes with similar risks to the sampled homes with high lead results do not have easy access to information about the potential for consuming very high lead levels in their water.
You can search this table to see how your water system’s 90th percentile compares to the future 12 ppb lead action level and see the highest lead sample found in the system in 2023.
The following table combines all the data presented above so you can look at it all in one place, by water utility.
Here are some steps for learning more about lead in your community and reducing your risk of exposure to lead in water
Look for your most recent Annual Water Quality Report (Consumer Confidence Report) on your water utility’s website to see the 90th percentile result, the full range of lead results, and the most recent information on your community’s service line inventory. The 2024 reports that cover data from January 1-December 31, 2023 are being released around now and were distributed by July 1. If you have questions about what it all means, try exploring these FAQs for answers, or contact Planet Detroit to speak to a reporter (connect@planetdetroit.org)
The most reliable way to prevent exposure to lead in water, especially in places with older plumbing and lead service lines, is to use a filter that is certified to reduce lead in drinking water for all drinking and cooking water.
If you’re interested in replacing household plumbing to remove lead, check out this explainer about purchasing “lead-free” plumbing that meets current requirements.
If you want to test your home’s drinking water for lead, contact a lab that is state-certified for lead and copper testing. Here’s a list from EGLE.
Nina Ignaczak contributed reporting and data visualization support for this article.