Over 100 organizations compromising a new partnership for removing lead service lines participated in a White House Summit with Vice President Kamala Harris on Jan. 27.
The Get the Lead Out Partnership’s partners represent the water sector, including the federal government, states, municipalities, key water agencies like the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA), and private organizations like American Water and BlueConduit. The partners pledged to work together to identify new solutions to accelerate the replacement of the nation’s lead service lines.
“American Water is pleased to be a participant in today’s events and applauds this national effort to remove all lead service lines,” said Susan Hardwick, president and CEO of American Water, in a press release. “We have eliminated about 40,000 lead service lines across our service areas in the last several years. This is part of our proactive, multi-faceted approach to managing the potential exposure to lead as part of our commitment to maintain high-quality water and help protect the health and safety of customers. We are committed to removing lead piping from service lines across our entire American Water footprint.”
“BlueConduit’s mission focuses on using data science and innovation to enable and empower communities to get the lead out, efficiently and equitably,” said Eric Schwartz, co-founder of BlueConduit, in a statement. “This partnership is a crucial step in combating lead exposure in our country, multiplying our combined efforts to exponentially reduce the number of days families live with the risk.”
“AMWA members protect the health of children, families, and communities daily by providing clean and safe drinking water,” said Tom Dobbins, CEO of AMWA, in a press release. “However, AMWA knows that harmful lead service lines disproportionately impact low-income and communities of color. AMWA will continue to work with our members, EPA, and the White House to identify and pursue ways to replace lead service lines sensibly.”
The Biden-Harris Administration has set of goal of replacing all lead service lines within a decade. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, passed in 2021, provides $15 billion through 2026 to reduce the amount of lead in drinking water.
