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Lead Free History
Safe Drinking Water Act
The cornerstone of lead free standards started back in 1974 when the government passed the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) to protect public health by regulating the nation's public drinking water supply. The SDWA allows the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set standards for drinking water to protect against naturally-occurring and man-made contaminants found in drinking water.
In 1986 and 1996, numerous amendments to the law were introduced that helped change how the EPA, states, and water systems prepare for future drinking water safety challenges and assure the availability of safe drinking water.
Lead Contamination Control Act
As part of the amendment to strengthen the SDWA, Congress passed the Lead Contamination Control Act (LCCA) in 1988. The LCCA aimed to provide guidance to states and localities to test for and remedy lead contamination in drinking water in schools and day care centers. It also contained specific requirements for the testing, recall, repair and/or replacement of water coolers with lead lined storage tanks or with parts containing lead and attaches civil and criminal penalties for the manufacture and sale or water coolers containing lead.
Under the 1996 amendments to the SDWA, section 1417 specified:
"No person may use any pipe, any pipe or plumbing fitting or fixture, any solder, or any flux, in the installation or repair of any public water system or any plumbing in a residential or nonresidential facility providing water for human consumption that is not lead-free."
The term "lead-free" means solders and flux may not contain more than 0.2 percent lead. Pipes, pipe fittings, and well pumps may not contain more than 8.0 percent lead.
Furthermore, plumbing fittings or fixtures dispensing water for human ingestion must contain less than 8.0 percent lead. This includes kitchen and bar faucets, lavatory faucets, water dispensers, drinking fountains, water coolers, glass fillers, residential refrigerator ice makers, supply stops and endpoint control valves.