The New York Rural Water Association strongly encourages each municipality to consider sending a similar letter to the one below written by one of our member systems with regard to the existing inventories of brass fittings, etc.  This member took the initiative to write to his Congressman asking for support.  As you may be aware, Congressman Tonko was the cosponsor of HR3588 which passed in Congress and we are hopeful will pass the Senate soon.

Please consider writing to your Representative on this important matter.  If you need contact information, please call our office at 1-888-697-8725 and ask for Pat Scalera, CEO NYRWA.  You can cut and paste this text and make the necessary current changes and include your community information.

Dear Congressman …..
The Town of ________ (name of your village/town/city)strongly supports H.R. 3588, The Community Fire Safety Act of 2013 and we appreciate your assistance and leadership on this
issue.
We are encouraged by its passage in Congress and hope that the Senate will support it as well to allow small and rural communities like  ____________ to plan effectively and ensure that limited pubic resources are not wasted. We have heard from our state and national rural water association that HR 3588 is being reviewed in the Senate. This is very good news and thank you again for your support.
The same law (The Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act of 2011) that is prohibiting
the use of our purchased, but not installed fire hydrants, will also prohibit the use
___________(name of your town/village/city) ‘s inventory of brass water supply fixtures after the law’s effective date of January 4, 2014. We purchase these water supply fixtures in advance to ensure we have access to them in water emergencies which often happen in the middle of night,
weekends, and when supplies are not available – and to realize any cost savings to the
community by buying them in bulk. The current monetary value of our existing water
fixture/components inventory that we will have to scrap after January 4th, is
$_______(add your estimated cost). This a significant expenditure for a small community like ________(name of your village, town, city), and the scrapping of this inventory and the necessity to replace it with a similar compliant and more costly inventory will result in an economic hardship for the citizens of our community.
Our problem with this law and the January 4th compliance date is that the use of our
inventory past the January 4th, will not present any additional risk to health of our
citizens because: (1) the fixtures/components are used to replace the same failed parts
already in the water distribution system (some with higher concentrations of lead): and
(2) our drinking water quality is well below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) lead health standard. As the law prohibits the sale of products not meeting the
new standard after January 4th, our future inventory will become compliant over time. It
appears this may have been the intent of the law because it specifies the regulation of
commerce. ___________’s town council and citizens take very seriously the quality of our
drinking water and we would only provide drinking water that is completely
safe. However, this new regulation will not result in any needed public health
protection, but will force our community to spend limited resources on something our
citizens don’t find valuable. It is estimated that the cost of this portion of this law could
be as much as $1 billion ($450 in existing inventories, and the additional cost of
replacing the inventories with more expensive components, plus labor costs).
We would be grateful if you would consider adding an additional provision to your
legislation that would provide the EPA with implementation flexibility to extend the
compliance date for up to three years for small communities. This is the additional
amount of time that we are typically provided by the EPA to compliance with other
regulations.
Thank you again for your assistance to _____________ and approximately _____(add your population #) small communities (and their citizens) who would benefit from this type of relief.
Sincerely,
your name
your title
your email address
your phone #

Your Village/Town/City