releases: http://tipton.house.gov/press-release/tipton-votes-protect-communities-costly-epa-burden-and-public-safety-risk
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
This data as json
| url | title | date | year | month | party | chamber | state | member_name | bioguide_id | domain | scraper | source | date_source | text | has_text | collected_at | updated_at |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| http://tipton.house.gov/press-release/tipton-votes-protect-communities-costly-epa-burden-and-public-safety-risk | Tipton Votes to Protect Communities from Costly EPA Burden and Public Safety Risk | 2013-12-02 | 2013 | 2013-12 | Republican | House | CO | Scott Tipton | T000470 | tipton.house.gov | legacy | WASHINGTON—Today, Congressman Scott Tipton (R-CO) voted to pass bipartisan legislation in the House of Representatives to clarify the intent of the Safe Drinking Water Act and stop an unnecessary Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-created mandate that would prevent the installation of commercially-available fire hydrants, and jeopardize public safety. Hydrants, like shower valves—which are already exempt under the law—are not intended to be a sustained source of drinking water, and as such do not pose health risks associated with long-term lead exposure. The EPA’s interpretation of the law would stop the installation of hydrants that contain lead after January 4, 2014, creating a threat to public safety by leaving communities with no option to replace broken hydrants, even in the event of an emergency, since virtually all commercially-available hydrants contain lead. “The EPA’s determination would do nothing to protect our drinking water supply as the Safe Drinking Water Act intends, but would create an unnecessary, onerous burden for many communities already on tight budgets, and pose a risk to public safety. In Pueblo, Colorado alone, the Board of Water Works estimates that the cost for achieving compliance with a lead free requirement for all fire hydrants would exceed $14 million,” said Tipton. “The EPA attempt to create this new mandate is not the intent of the original law. Today’s commonsense legislation clarifies Congress’s intent, stops this overreach, and addresses the threat to public safety by allowing communities to continue to use readily available hydrants.” In a November letter to Tipton, the Pueblo Board of Water Works wrote: “Health concerns associated with lead are generally a matter of long-term exposure, and hydrants used during emergencies or at special events as potable water sources typically serve this purpose for only a few hours or days. Applying this act to fire hydrants represents a massive investment of time and resources for little if any discernible public health benefit. We do not believe that this interpretation of the law is what Congress intended. “In addition, existing inventories of hydrants across the country will be rendered obsolete if not installed before January 4. Again, the timing alone should give Congress grave concerns. The act was written to provide a three-year transition period for compliance. However, EPA’s new interpretation gives manufacturers, distributors and public and private utilities only two months to use or lose their hydrant inventories.” H.R. 3588, which the House passed today, amends the Safe Drinking Water Act to include fire hydrants in the list of items that are exempted from the prohibition on lead plumbing supplies, equipment, and fixtures. | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |