Environment North Carolina Launches Lead Awareness Campaign

As children head back to school, parents, teachers and administrators will be educated on how they can help protect the water that students drink there. 

This week, Environment North Carolina, a citizen-based advocacy organization in Raleigh, will begin distributing free toolkits with information about lead contamination, solutions, additional resources, and how to take action. Clean water advocate Krista Early says the “Back to School Get the Lead Out Toolkit” is an important first step in raising awareness.  

“We have just seen a bunch of different reports from the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] and the American Academy of Pediatrics that's clearly stated that there's no safe level for lead in drinking water for anybody but specifically for children,” says Early. “Because they're one of the most vulnerable populations that can be affected by it.”

Some of the effects of lead in children include brain and nervous system damage, slowed growth, hearing problems, headaches and anemia. Early says thankfully, the solution is simple: remove lead from the water infrastructure in schools from things like pipes, plumbing, faucets or fountains. 

For homeowners, she says service lines may be the culprit.

“The water main line that's owned by the public utilities actually have a service line that goes to each home,“ says Early. “Part of the service line is the property of the homeowner. So, if the piece that's on your property is a lead pipe, that is where the lead is going to be leeching from, and why your water is affected even though your water utility line may not be. So, if it's lead, it's on you to change it.”

Early says a new partnership with North Carolina State University's “Crowd the Tap” program focuses on how homeowners can test their pipes with a simple scratch test that determines what type of pipe is supplying water to their home.

The next event takes place Wednesday in Greensboro, and a third will take place Monday, September 23 in Charlotte.