An Algorithm Is Helping a Community Detect Lead Pipes

More than six years after residents of Flint, Michigan, suffered widespread lead poisoning from their drinking water, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent to improve water quality and bolster the city’s economy. But residents still report a type of community PTSD, waiting in long grocery store lines to stock up on bottled waters and filters…

One tool that emerged from the crisis is a form of artificial intelligence that could prevent similar problems in other cities where lead poisoning is a serious concern. BlueConduit, an analytics startup that says it uses predictive modeling to find lead pipes, offered promising results in Flint, but the city’s complex politics ended its use prematurely.

Now, four years later and 100 miles away, officials in Toledo, Ohio, facing concerns about lead pipes, want to use the technology. 

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