Public detection of lead plumbing and perceptions of municipal and well drinking water safety in the United States

Abstract

Federal monies to remediate lead in drinking water support utilities companies to upgrade infrastructure. There is little upgrade support for private property owners on public or private sources of water, and sparse data available on the remaining locations of lead plumbing in homes. Crowd the Tap is a participatory science project focused on opportunistically identifying household plumbing and lead contamination in drinking water in the United States and mostly in North Carolina. Households (n = 3121) provided data on plumbing materials and home age. A subset of households (n = 493) provided tap water samples for laboratory testing. Adult participants (n = 99, 4.0% response rate) responded to a survey about their trust in tap water. We found 15% of homes had no detectable lead, 63% had trace levels (0.1-1 ppb), about 20% had detectable lead (between 1.0 and 15 ppb), and 5 households were at or above the action level of 15 ppb. Lead in water was more likely to be detected in households that reported any type of metal plumbing material and use of well water. Households served by private wells instead of municipal systems were about four times more likely to have detectable levels of lead. Nevertheless, survey respondents served by private wells were more likely to trust the safety of their drinking water than those served by municipal systems. Without lower action levels and/or broadening support for infrastructure upgrades, minimizing lead in water will remain at the discretion and capacity of households. Our results highlight the limitations of current drinking water regulations which do not eliminate lead in water, hindering access to safe drinking water.