More than 1,300 public water systems have been cited by the Environmental Protection Agency for missing an October 2024 deadline to submit an inventory of the service lines that may carry lead into drinking water, according to an Associated Press analysis of EPA enforcement data. That deadline passed nearly two years ago.
The larger gap remains open. Roughly 6,300 water systems serving 3.8 million Americans have still not submitted the required list, the AP found. For their customers, the missing paperwork has a personal cost: they cannot look up whether the pipe connecting their home to the water main is made of lead.
