About Us

The Lead Innovation Hub is an ongoing initiative to promote faster, more efficient, and equitable lead service line replacement. The Mayor’s Roadmap is the first series of tools and resources released within the Hub, and draws on the expertise of advocates, engineers, policy experts, and real-world experiences. Development of the Mayor’s Roadmap was led by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC), in collaboration with several organizations, advisors, and partners. EPIC will continue to grow the Hub throughout the year—elevating best-practices, highlighting innovations, and providing clear actionable tools to a variety of users including water utilities, elected officials, and community organizers. Together, we can get the lead out! Stay tuned for further changes, additional resources, and innovative solutions.

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In Benton Harbor, MI, the community-based organization Benton Harbor Solutions hosted a community-led radio show that shared information on city efforts to replace lead service lines in a non-traditional way to the community while simultaneously aiming to build trust between external entities and the community. For example, in November and December 2021, the EPA completed three separate water filtration studies to ensure the efficacy of the removal and reduction of lead in drinking water. Once the results were released in March 2022, Benton Harbor Solutions hosted EPA staff to convey the results effectively.

Milwaukee is one of the few cities in the country with a prioritization plan to ensure neighborhoods likely to suffer the most severe impacts from lead poisoning get their pipes replaced first. In consultation with a community-based group, Coalition for Lead Emergency (COLE), and following a public engagement process, Milwaukee included in an ordinance three indicators to prioritize where LSLs will be removed first:

  1. The area deprivation index (ADI), which is a compilation of social determinants of health
  2. The percentage of children found to have elevated lead levels in their blood when tested for lead poisoning
  3. The density of lead service lines in the neighborhood.

Read more here.