Lead in Drinking Water

Recent tragedies in Flint, Michigan and Newark, New Jersey have renewed national attention on the problem of lead in drinking water. In these crises, lead service lines, the water pipes which connect water mains to a building’s internal plumbing, corroded and leached dangerous neurotoxins into the kitchen tap water of thousands of homes.

Lead service lines are unfortunately not limited to Flint and Newark. An estimated 360,000 of these pipes, among the highest numbers in the nation, are buried underground across New York State. From Newburgh to Amsterdam to New York City, we are already seeing drinking water contamination caused by lead service lines across the state.

There is no safe level of lead exposure. To end lead poisoning, the only permanent solution is to remove the sources of lead altogether.


Our work focuses on eliminating lead in drinking water and securing investments from New York State to replace all lead services lines across the state. We work with a large coalition of housing groups, tenant organizations, and environmental justice groups to achieve this goal.