lead

Older cities and towns throughout New Jersey and the nation are facing a public health crisis - lead in drinking water.

When I applied to be a door to door canvasser for Clean Water in my senior year of college, I figured it would be a pretty cool part time job until graduation. Little did I know that Clean Water Action and Clean Water Fund would be my first employer out of college as well! After just under a year and a half in the Northampton field canvass office, I have accepted a job as Clean Water’s Massachusetts Drinking Water Advocate.

Clean Water Action is conducting a study of 200 homes in Baltimore City and County to test for lead contamination in drinking water.

Lead can enter water if it is present in the service lines, in-home pipes, or faucets and fixtures in your home, and if water is corrosive or has high mineral content.  To learn more about how lead enters drinking water, click here.

Clean Water Action can test your drinking water for free if:

There’s no magic solution to the challenges of lead service line replacement, but there are local, state and federal policies that could support communities and water systems in this effort.

This has been an action-packed month and a half in Annapolis. Crossover is now looming, when all bills have to clear one of the sides of our General Assembly and move over to the other body. Here is the status of our legislative priorities:

Earlier this month in a legislative session that went until the early hours of the morning, both chambers of the Michigan Legislature passed the budget for 2017. Included in the budget omnibus bill is $114.3 million in emergency supplemental funding for solutions to the Flint water crisis.

In the wake of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan the subject of lead in drinking water has received sustained attention, as has the federal regulation and the federal role in reducing lead at the tap.

It was a dark, cold January day, shortly after Michigan officials had finally admitted that the people of Flint had been exposed to poisoned water running through their taps. We drove from Lansing to St Michael’s Church in Flint for an organizing meeting. Local activists, people from the non-profit community, and even experts who had run door-to-door canvasses in response to Hurricane Sandy, were all there to do something about the water crisis that is still being ignored by our state government.

This week a group of Senators introduced the "True LEADership Act" to get lead out of contact with water and improve the quality of drinking water in the United States. It's a good step forward.

In the wake of the Flint water crisis, a lot of media attention has focused on the country’s aging water infrastructure, nationally. Here in California, many people do not have access to clean drinking water.