{"id":8181,"date":"2018-10-08T13:17:23","date_gmt":"2018-10-08T18:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/?p=8181"},"modified":"2019-06-03T09:07:24","modified_gmt":"2019-06-03T14:07:24","slug":"mapping-state-lead-service-line-indiana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2018\/10\/08\/mapping-state-lead-service-line-indiana\/","title":{"rendered":"Mapping state-level lead service line information: Indiana as a model"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lindsay McCormick,<\/a> is a Project Manager. Tom Neltner, J.D.<\/a>, is the Chemicals Policy Director.<\/em><\/p>\n

Developing inventories to document and share what water utilities know \u2013 and do not know \u2013 about lead service lines (LSLs) with the public is a difficult, but critical, step in creating an effective<\/a> LSL replacement program.<\/p>\n

States can play an important role in collecting estimates of the number of known and potential LSLs for each utility and shaping how that information is communicated to the public.\u00a014 states have surveyed utilities<\/a>\u00a0operating community water systems in their state to acquire such information.<\/p>\n

States have made this information publicly available through different methods. Some have posted individual utility reports, while others have provided a report summarizing the findings. In analyzing the approaches, we found that no state currently makes the results available in a format that allows the public to easily see the information from multiple utilities.<\/p>\n

But in today\u2019s world, people typically expect data to be presented in a visually friendly and digestible format. So as a model, we decided to create a state-level map of LSL information.<\/p>\n

Of the 14 states, we found that Indiana has one of the\u00a0most robust surveys<\/a>, asking detailed questions about portions of the service line containing lead, information sources checked, and service line ownership on public versus private property<\/a>.\u00a0 Further, it has a good response rate for a voluntary survey. While only 57% of systems responded, these systems account for 92% of the service lines in the state \u2013 as most non-respondents were primarily smaller community water systems.<\/p>\n

EDF acquired a spreadsheet from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and combined this information with data from EPA\u2019s State Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS<\/a>) to develop a map of LSLs in Indiana as a model.<\/p>\n

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What does the map show?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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