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WASHINGTON, D.C. ­– In a stark visual reminder of the threat to public health from dangerous lead water pipes, NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) today released a map based on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data revealing the specific communities and water systems most impacted by the estimated 9.2 million lead water pipes delivering drinking water to homes. There is no safe level of lead exposure.

The data confirm that lead pipes are found in all 50 states, with Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Florida having the most. Chicago and Cleveland are the cities with the most reported lead pipes, but the problem is also widespread across the nation with cities like Cocoa, Florida, and Atlanta, Georgia also having major problems. Millions more people are drinking water from pipes that could be lead because their local utilities have labeled their composition as “unknown.”

“Each lead pipe on this map connects an entire family to an urgent drinking water threat in their home,” said Valerie Baron, National Policy Director and Senior Attorney at NRDC’s Safe Water Initiative . “Children today are drinking water that traveled through the same dangerous pipe that was installed before their parents were even born. It is long past time for utilities and governments to take responsibilities for these hazards, and the first step is knowing where they are.”

This new data underscores the importance of EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule Improvements, which the agency promised will be finalized by October 16, one month from today. It is expected to represent the most significant step in a generation towards tackling the nationwide problem of lead in drinking water. For the first time, it will become federal policy to replace 100 percent of lead water pipes within 10 years, among other improvements .

“No one I’ve ever met wants to drink water from a lead straw, so the EPA’s final lead rule must finally fix the historic wrong of transporting drinking water through toxic lead pipes,” said Erik D. Olson, senior strategic director for health at NRDC . “Community leaders from Flint, Michigan to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Newark, New Jersey, and Chicago, Illinois have been fighting to clean up our tap water, and the government is right to recognize the urgent need to do more to protect the right to safe drinking water.”

$15 billion in federal funding is available to states but allocations are determined by a lead pipe inventory. Despite this financial incentive, EPA’s data exposes many water systems have failed to identify whether they have lead pipes, and some have characterized the material makeup of many or all of their water pipes as made of “unknown material.” But a comprehensive national requirement for water systems to complete an inventory identifying the location of their lead pipes becomes effective one month from today, October 16. The data from those inventories will not be immediately publicly available.

NRDC’s map is based upon EPA’s survey data recently publicly released after NRDC submitted a Freedom of Information Act request. Some highlights about the geographic location where pipes are located include:

Some highlights about water pipe inventories reported by Public Water Systems (water utilities) include:

Additional Resources:

NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).