How 2024 Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI) affect schools and childcare facilities
In October 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced critical updates to the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI) to better protect communities—especially schools and child-care facilities—from the dangers of lead-contaminated drinking water.
What’s New with the LCRI?
The new rules build on prior regulations but introduce stronger measures to safeguard vulnerable populations, particularly young children by:
- Lowering the Lead Action Level: The new action level is reduced from 0.015 mg/L to 0.010 mg/L, triggering earlier intervention for lead contamination in water. Earlier action means less exposure for kids.
- Mandating Lead Service Line Replacement (LSLR): The LCRI funds and requires full replacement of all lead and some galvanized service lines within 10 years, regardless of the water system’s lead levels. That means water to your school should be delivered lead-free within 10 years.
- Testing All Elementary, Middle Schools, and Licensed Childcare Facilities: Your water service provider is now required to test these facilities within 5 years and offer testing to high schools.
- Improving Sampling: When schools and child-care facilities are tested, they will benefit from enhanced tap sampling protocols, which now require water systems to collect first draw and flush samples at outlets used for human consumption. This offers a more accurate assessment of lead levels.
Does it mean your school will have lead-free water?
Unfortunately, the new protections don’t provide funding for—or require replacement of plumbing materials that contain lead inside your school, leaving your students—and millions of others—still vulnerable.
Yes, you’ll learn about your lead levels through the new testing, but a solution is up to you. Thankfully, we have an easy, cost-effective one: Pure Spout.
How Pure Spout can help you end lead in your school’s water
Our filtration systems retrofit to any fountain, giving you a cost-effective, easy-to-install solution. With installation times of less than an hour, your school can quickly add point-of-use filtration to your existing water fountains and bottle filler stations—and get immediate relief from potential lead exposure.
Pure Spout filters are independently certified to NSF Standard 53 for lead Reduction, making them a trusted choice to protect students and teachers right now.
Help protect your school now.
Consider Pure Spout’s cost-effect solutions. Need advice? We’ve got you.
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