Toxic lead materials in plumbing systems are an unfortunate legacy from decades of lead pipe installation in homes and communities across the country. They continue to affect the safety of drinking water, with crises in cities like Flint, Michigan, and Newark, New Jersey, providing examples of the challenges facing local and national leaders.

As cities and states begin investing $15 billion earmarked in recent legislation to secure safer drinking water, adopting best-practice approaches will help make this effort effective, efficient, and equitable. To that end, a broad  consortium of health, justice, and environmental organizations developed guidelines for community-led lead pipe replacement programs, incorporating important lessons learned along the way, a useful foundation for the guidance for architects and engineers recently published by Safe Piping Matters. 

1. Community Involvement & Communication: engage neighborhoods with education on plans, risks & mitigations, and process, paying special attention to pregnant women, infants, and children. 

2. Provide Full Funding from Government or Water System Spending: Projects should cover all pipes and connectors from the main to where lines connect to indoor plumbing.

3. Prioritize At-Risk Communities: Plans should address lower-income areas with older housing, where children have tended to be at higher risk of lead poisoning.

4. Approach, Method, and Material Used: Lead should be replaced with copper rather than plastic due to “significant questions about plastic pipes including whether they will leach chemicals… allow permeation of… contaminated groundwater…” and fail sooner. Projects should begin with surveys of the community to identify where lead pipes are located as well as where piping material is not known, and should address entire neighborhoods rather than doing one-offs.

5. Economic Justice, Prevailing Wages, and Immigrant Justice: Projects should use union labor, provide opportunities for local community members, and not require documentation of residents’ legal status.

6. Providing Safe Drinking Water during Construction: Replacing pipes can dislodge lead in systems, raising health risks. Projects must give residents filters to remove lead from drinking water or provide alternate sources of safe water during and for six months after projects.

7. Speed of Construction: As soon as possible, but within 10 years.

8. Consent of Property Owner Not Needed: Adopt legislation that allows replacement without approval from owners or landlords (an approach that worked in Newark).

9. Reducing Cost & Risk: Project managers should work to minimize the disruption and number of visits to properties by coordinating and combining plumbing repairs/replacements with site surveys, water main upgrades and system repairs.  

10. Lead Testing: Conduct accurate testing of water after replacement work is complete.

The full document includes additional guidelines, references, and information on the organizations who contributed to this work.