Dear NRDC Supporter,

We should all be able to drink a glass of tap water and not worry about whether it’s free from lead. Today, I am delighted to share that Flint, Michigan’s court-ordered lead pipe replacement program has been completed, with almost 11,000 lead and galvanized steel service lines pulled out of the ground.

More than a decade since Flint’s water crisis began, the last lead pipe eligible for removal under NRDC’s landmark settlement agreement was finally replaced.

Learn more about this monumental victory for safe drinking water that was a decade in the making.

It all began in 2014 when the city of Flint switched its drinking water supply from Detroit’s system to the Flint River in an effort to save money. The inadequately treated water was foul-smelling, discolored, and off-tasting.

Worse yet was that after more than a year of residents sounding the alarm, independent water testing in the fall of 2015 showed serious and widespread lead contamination. Another study showed elevated blood-lead levels in children citywide had doubled since 2014.

Lead is an extremely dangerous neurotoxin that harms the developing brain, severely impairing mental and physical development, and is especially dangerous for children and pregnant people. In adults, it can also cause increased blood pressure, fatal heart disease, kidney impairment, and cancer. There is no safe level of lead.

This was a full-blown emergency. We knew we had to act, so NRDC joined local partners to file a lawsuit against the city of Flint and Michigan state officials.

Read more about how we won a landmark settlement requiring the city to locate and replace lead service lines — and then went back to court SIX more times to be able to say today that nearly 11,000 lead pipes have been removed in Flint.

While the residents of Flint can rest easier knowing that the vast majority of lead pipes are gone, we won’t rest until every community in the United States can say the same. A 2024 NRDC report estimates that over 9 million lead water pipes are delivering drinking water to homes across the United States — from Newark to Chicago to Atlanta.

Between hundreds of thousands of supporters like you submitting public comment and our litigation and advocacy in cities like Flint and Newark tackling the lead-contaminated tap water crisis, we scored a big win last fall: The Biden-Harris administration released the Lead and Copper Improvements Rule, which requires virtually all lead water pipes across the nation to be removed within 10 years.

But the fight is far from over. Water utilities filed a selfish lawsuit against the EPA to stop the new stronger standards. And while NRDC and our partners are working hard to uphold the new rule, the Trump administration has not committed to removing the dangerous lead pipes serving millions of peoples’ homes and to defending the rule’s crucial health protections.

We’re tracking this case closely and considering all our options to defend these standards — including fighting back in court if that’s what it takes to ensure safe drinking water for all.

We’ve proven once that an outpouring of support can convince our leaders to protect our drinking water. We can do it again.

Send a letter to the EPA telling them that you demand safe drinking water for all.

After all, clean drinking water is a basic human right, and our success in Flint proved that it can be made accessible to everyone. We will keep fighting — like we always have — for the strongest standards possible.

Sincerely,

Erik D. Olson
Senior Strategic Director, Environmental Health, NRDC