Lead Cable Concerns Necessitate FCC/EPA/OSHA Task Force: Wheeler, Levin
The FCC is working with the White House's interagency Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children regarding concerns about environmental and health risks potentially posed by telecommunications companies' lead cables, agency spokesperson emailed us Friday. Chairwoman…
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Jessica Rosenworcel said the agency has offered assistance to EPA (see 2307210004). "We take seriously the concerns raised about potential lead exposure from communications lines," she said. Meanwhile, the EPA, the FCC and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration should form a joint task force with the aim of mapping lead cable deployments nationwide and prioritizing remediation, former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Blair Levin, who oversaw development of the agency's National Broadband Plan, wrote for the Brookings Institute Friday. "One would hope [the three] along with the White House are already coordinating such a response," as such a task force could give guidance on remediation strategies and exposure risks, they said. Wheeler, a Brookings visiting fellow, and Levin, a nonresident senior fellow, said the first step must be mapping where and how the lead cables are deployed, and then prioritizing the different installations where remediation is necessary. If there are debates and litigation about what science says about the actual threat, as well as about ownership liability, "the matter will drag on unresolved for years," they said. Other states are likely to follow New York and require telcos to provide an inventory of lead-affected cables, they said. But only the federal government "has the combination of skills and resources to orchestrate an acceptable resolution," they said. The EPA will be a focus of discussions, though the FCC has the authority to demand such information as data about previous testing and the location of lead sheathed cables, they said. Having taxpayers foot remediation costs seems unlikely, but it's probably the best path to accelerated remediation of sites where the cables present an immediate or near-term risk, they said. The FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program "provides a model for addressing common practices that in the fullness of time created risks that America broadly wants to be eliminated," they said. Since billions spent on cleanup by telcos could affect their broadband deployment activity, "we need the federal government to map, prioritize and fund the solutions."