Ready for the Federal Reduction of Lead In Drinking Water Act Effective Jan. 1, 2014? F. Alan Shirk A.Y. McDonald Inc.
dictated by the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1975 (amended 1986 and 1996).
For more than two decades, the manufacturer of waterworks brass, plumbing products, pumps, water systems, high-pressure gas valves and meter bars has focused on perfecting its lead-free line of waterworks brass products and educating its utility customers, distributors and others about successfully complying with the new Federal Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act going into effect January 4, 2014.
The state of California has been a leader in the effort to make no-lead brass the industry standard. Los Angeles became the first city in the country to transition to no-lead brass, for which A.Y. McDonald provided the industry’s first no-lead brass corporation and curb stops.
A.Y. McDonald is headquartered in Dubuque, Iowa with a major distribution center in Elizabethton, Tenn. President Mike McDonald, whose great-great grandfather founded the business in 1856, said the new law reduces the allowable lead content of any water system component that comes into contact with potable water to a weighted average of only 0.25 percent. “This is a bulldozer coming down the road. It is a major change. As one of the first manufacturers in the industry to offer a complete line of no-lead valves and fittings, A.Y. McDonald has been researching and preparing for this legislation for more than two decades. Our job is to educate,” he stressed. Lead content in drinking water has long been a concern of industry, government and environmental organizations because of the metal’s harmful effects to the human nervous system and brain development. Until the latest law, however, the maximum allowable lead content of drinking water pipes and fittings has been 8 percent, as
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A.Y. McDonald Marketing VP Scott Knapp said California set the tone for the nation in 2006, when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill 1953, reducing the maximum allowable lead content of plumbing pipes and fixtures to a weighted average of 0.25 percent. Already the industry leader in no-lead service brass. “California set the tone for the industry,” said McDonald, “and because we had taken a proactive approach in developing no-lead products long before the legislation passed, we were prepared for the increased demand when the state law went into effect. Now we’re prepared and excited for the increased demand on a national scale, including throughout Tennessee.” Knapp said the new Federal law is mostly based on the California legislation which went into effect January 1, 2010. Vermont enacted its own “0.25” law which went into effect the same date as California, while Maryland begins enforcing its law January 1, 2012. However, beginning in 2014, all states will be required to comply with the new Federal law. A few problems occurred in California that Tennessee
TENNESSEE UTILITY NEWS