By Irina Perry

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther, and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) Director John Logue have announced a new partnership award of $500,000 to replace lead and galvanized water service lines at licensed childcare facilities served by Columbus Water and Power.

As part of Governor DeWine’s H2Ohio initiative, Ohio EPA awarded $500,000 to the City of Columbus to prioritize the removal of lead service lines at daycares as part of the community’s overall work to remove lead pipes citywide. 

H2Ohio, developed in 2019 to improve water quality across the state, has funded similar projects in Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Toledo with the goal of fully eliminating any risk of lead exposure at childcare facilities that look after children under the age of six, which is the age group most vulnerable to the impacts of lead.

“Water treatment technology does a great job of minimizing the risk of lead entering drinking water, but the only way to truly ensure zero risk is to remove the lead at its source,” said Governor DeWine.

“As communities across the state work to rid Ohio of lead pipes, it is important that we prioritize projects that will have the most impact on the most vulnerable.”

“We truly appreciate Ohio EPA investing these grant dollars to help us prioritize service line replacements to Columbus daycare facilities, including those that are private and home-based,” Mayor Andrew J. Ginther said.

“While there is no detectable lead in the drinking water delivered to our customers, the service line replacement project helps us eliminate a potential source of lead exposure to our children and all families in the city.”

Columbus is currently removing lead pipes at nearly 30 eligible childcare facilities with known lead or galvanized service lines. The city will also work to inventory water service lines at more than 100 additional daycares and will replace any lines that are discovered to be lead or galvanized.

According to the Ohio Department of Health, lead is most harmful to children under the age of six because their growing bodies take up lead easily. Lead can lower a child’s IQ, cause attention disorders, delay growth, impair hearing, and more.

“This is a foundational pillar at Ohio EPA – to get money into communities that need it to directly improve water quality and the children and families drinking it,” Ohio EPA Director John Logue said.

“At the direction of Governor DeWine’s H2Ohio initiative, we have and will continue to give all Ohioans access to safe drinking water.”

Since 2019, Ohio EPA has provided funding for the removal of 16,000 lead service lines statewide, with an additional 30,000 lead service lines in the process of replacement.

According to a recent inventory of 3.5 million water service lines in Ohio, approximately 9% are lead or galvanized pipes, 68% are not lead or galvanized, and the materials making up around 23% of pipes are not yet known.

Ohio EPA’s Get the Lead Out Ohio program is working to remove lead in water and help public water systems in their efforts to replace lead service lines.

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