Get The Lead Out

Lead is a highly poisonous metal and can affect almost every organ in the body and the nervous system. EPA estimates that lead in drinking water can be 20% or more of a person’s lead exposure. To protect public health, we must reduce lead exposure at the drinking water tap. Clean Water is working at the national and state level through policy, support for communities and water systems, and funding for lead service line replacement.

Lead and Drinking Water

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that lead in drinking water can be 20% or more of a person’s lead exposure. We need to get lead out of contact with water. That’s where full lead service line replacement comes in - alongside advocacy, collaboration, and education.
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News

Blog Posts

Health Impacts of Lead

 

How Lead Gets Into Drinking Water

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Lead Hazard Awareness Project: Lead in Paint

If your home was built before 1978, especially before 1960, it is very likely to have lead paint. Undisturbed paint with a smooth surface is not considered dangerous, and most lead paint has been covered with many layers of non-leaded paint. However, if the layered paint is loosened by water damage or pitted by the scrapes and dents of daily living, the old lead layers may become uncovered.
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peeling paint / photo: flickr.com/arrrika
Vacuuming a carpet / photo: flickr.com//wyldkyss CC

Lead Hazard Awareness Project: Housecleaning for Lead Safety

If you live in an old city house, you likely have lead in your paint and lead in your soil. Dust from both paint and soil contributes to house dust, and lead in house dust is a major source of lead poisoning in babies and small children. Minimizing lead dust is therefore one of the most important things you can do for your children.
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Publications

Factsheet: Lead and Drinking Water (English & Spanish)

To protect public health, we must reduce lead exposure at the drinking water tap. Clean Water is working for improvements in the Safe Drinking Water Act Lead and Copper Rule, supporting communities and water systems in accelerating full replacement of lead service lines through our work with the Lead Service Line Collaborative, and ensuring that funding for water infrastructure is allocated adequately and spent equitably and effectively.

Comments on EPA Lead & Copper Rule Revisions Review (Summer 2021)

Clean Water Action and Clean Water Fund respectfully submit these comments regarding the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Review of National Primary Drinking Water Regulations: Lead and Copper Rule Revisions (LCRR).

Community Letter -- Invest in Our Water -- July 2021

Our organizations thank you for your continued leadership and commitment to clean and safe drinking water, public health, and environmental justice. As you implement the American Jobs Plan and Build

Children wading into a Michigan lake. "For Our Clean Water Future". Photo: Jen Schlicht

Support Clean Water Action

For over 50 years, support from our members and the public has powered our campaigns to protect clean water, safeguard our communities, fight the climate crisis, tackle the tsunami of single-use plastic pollution, get Clean Water Voters to the polls, and more. Your donation today ensures we can keep winning campaigns for our water!
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