What 40 CFR 141.80 says about rule editions and end conditions

The current text of 40 CFR 141.80 states one number for lead — 0.010 mg/L — and states that the lead action level is exceeded if the concentration specified in paragraph (c)(3) of that section is greater than that figure. The same section then tells named water systems, for a window running from October 30, 2024 to November 1, 2027, to comply with a listed block of provisions as codified on July 1, 2020, and the same sentence also names a July 1, 2024 codification. Both the number and the edition instruction sit in the section a reader opens today.

That instruction lives in one federal record: 40 CFR 141.80, in Subpart I of Part 141, under Title 40 (Protection of Environment). It is public and free to read at the eCFR page for 40 CFR Part 141. Everything below is the section’s own wording and the dates the record carries.

This original record-reading guide is a general reading aid, not cited evidence. It does not depict a source record; the article text and source links provide the facts.

Key points

• The section states that the lead action level is exceeded if the concentration specified in paragraph (c)(3) is greater than 0.010 mg/L.
• It states the copper action level in the same pattern: exceeded if the concentration specified in paragraph (c)(3) is greater than 1.3 mg/L.
• For a window running from October 30, 2024 to November 1, 2027, the section directs named water system types to a July 1, 2020 codification of a listed block of provisions, closes the same sentence with a July 1, 2024 codification, and states that those systems must also comply with a further list the sentence sets out.
• A separate paragraph directs systems holding an exemption issued before December 16, 2021 to comply with 40 CFR 141.80 through 141.91, as codified on July 1, 2020, “until the expiration of that exemption” — a second end condition, separate from the November 1, 2027 deadline.

Record behind the action level

The record renders under its own heading, “§ 141.80 General requirements and action level.” The action level and the compliance instructions are paragraphs of the same section, so a reader who arrives at the number is reading the same record that carries the edition instruction.

Numbers in the current text

Paragraph (c)(1) states the lead action level as an exceedance condition:

(1) The lead action level is exceeded if the 90th percentile concentration of lead as specified in paragraph (c)(3) of this section is greater than 0.010 mg/L.

The sentence says when the action level is exceeded. It is written as a trigger, and it sits in a section whose earlier paragraphs point the named system types at other codifications inside a dated window.

Paragraph (c)(2) states copper in the same pattern:

(2) The copper action level is exceeded if the 90th percentile concentration of copper as specified in paragraph (c)(3) of this section is greater than 1.3 mg/L.

Both sentences refer the reader to paragraph (c)(3) of the same section for the specification.

Effective date in the section

Paragraph (a)(2) is a single sentence:

The requirements of this subpart are effective as of December 30, 2024.

That is the effectiveness statement for the subpart’s requirements, dated December 30, 2024. It is separate from the date by which systems must comply, which the next paragraph sets.

Deadline and its exceptions

Paragraph (a)(3) opens: “Community water systems and non-transient non-community water systems must comply with the requirements of this subpart no later than November 1, 2027,”. The sentence does not end there.

It continues, in full:

except where otherwise specified in §§ 141.81, 141.84, 141.85, 141.86, and 141.90, or where an exemption in accordance with 40 CFR part 142, subpart C or F, has been issued by the Administrator.

So the deadline arrives with named sections that may specify otherwise, and with a route under which the Administrator may issue an exemption. The section names those sections here; it does not state in this sentence what they specify, and naming an exemption route is not a statement that any particular system holds one.

Editions named for the window

Paragraph (a)(4)(i) opens with a dated window:

Between October 30, 2024, and November 1, 2027, community water systems and non-transient non-community water systems must comply with 40 CFR 141.2, 141.31(d), and 141.80 through 141.91, as codified on July 1, 2020,

The sentence continues past that comma into an excepting clause. Systems covered by the window must also comply with a further list, quoted here in full:

except systems must also comply with 40 CFR 141.84(a)(1) through (10) (excluding paragraphs (a)(6) and (7)), 141.85(a)(1)(ii) and (e), 141.90(e)(1) and (13), (f)(4), and (h)(3), 141.201(a)(3)(vi) and (c)(3), and 141.202(a)(10); 40 CFR part 141, appendix A to subpart Q, entry I.C.1 (excluding § 141.90, except paragraphs (e)(1) and (13) and (f)(4)) and entry I.C.2; 40 CFR part 141, appendix B to subpart Q, entry D.23; and 40 CFR 141.31(d)(2), as codified on July 1, 2024.

The clause reaches specific paragraphs with their own parenthetical exclusions rather than whole sections, and it names appendix material by entry: appendix A to subpart Q, entry I.C.1 and entry I.C.2, and appendix B to subpart Q, entry D.23. The instruction the section gives for this material is that systems must also comply with it.

That sentence opens with a July 1, 2020 codification and closes with a July 1, 2024 one. The string “July 1, 2024” appears once in § 141.80, immediately after “40 CFR 141.31(d)(2),”. How far that later codification date reaches back across the preceding list is not settled by the sentence on its face, and this article does not settle it. Neither codification is reproduced here either: what the section does is name editions, and what those editions say is a separate record that this article does not quote or characterize.

A second end condition

Paragraph (a)(4)(ii) sets out a separate pointer with its own ending:

(ii) If an exemption from subpart I of this part has been issued in accordance with 40 CFR part 142, subpart C or F, prior to December 16, 2021, then the water systems must comply with 40 CFR 141.80 through 141.91, as codified on July 1, 2020, until the expiration of that exemption.

This one ends on “the expiration of that exemption” rather than on a calendar date. The section states this end condition and the November 1, 2027 deadline separately; it does not rank them or say which governs for any particular system, and this article does not decide that either.

Dating this eCFR page

The section carries its own amendment history at the end:

[56 FR 26548, June 7, 1991; 57 FR 28788, June 29, 1992, as amended at 72 FR 57814, Oct. 10, 2007; 86 FR 4282, Jan. 15, 2021; 86 FR 31947, June 16, 2021; 89 FR 86626, Oct. 30, 2024]

That line is the edition marker a reader can read straight off the record.

Currency is recorded for the title as a whole. eCFR carries Title 40 as up to date as of September 3, 2026. That date belongs to the entire title, not to § 141.80 on its own.

When the section was checked on September 5, 2026, it carried no currency date of its own, and no notice of an amendment published but not yet incorporated appeared with it. Both are statements about the record as it stood at that check, not about any later date; a reader opening the page afterward should read the currency line and the amendment history that are on it then.

Source records

• 40 CFR Part 141, containing § 141.80 (Title 40, Protection of Environment) — eCFR — quoted paragraphs (a)(2), (a)(3), (a)(4)(i), (a)(4)(ii), (c)(1), and (c)(2), the section heading, and the amendment-history line. United States federal record, checked September 5, 2026.