Clean Water and Community Health

Clean, safe water is essential for healthy communities, yet access remains deeply unequal. Many neighborhoods across the United States continue to face elevated risks from water contamination, particularly lead exposure. Long-term clean water initiatives highlight how these challenges are shaped by aging infrastructure, housing conditions, and gaps in access to information and resources.

Communities most affected by lead contamination are often those with older buildings, limited infrastructure investment, and barriers to accessing public health services. In these areas, lead exposure can come from multiple sources, including drinking water, contaminated soil, and lead-based paint. These risks are frequently invisible, making education and early intervention critical components of prevention.

The Importance of Community-Based Approaches

Lead exposure prevention initiatives are most effective when they prioritize community engagement. Programs that center education, outreach, and local leadership help residents understand potential sources of exposure and practical steps to reduce risk. Multilingual communication is often essential, ensuring that information reaches families regardless of language spoken.

Community organizers and local ambassadors from nonprofit organizations play a vital role by building trust, sharing accurate information, and helping residents connect with resources such as water filters, testing programs, and health screenings. Their work also supports communication between residents, local organizations, and municipal agencies, making lead prevention efforts more effective.

But, in a series of cuts in mid-2025, the Trump administration cancelled hundreds of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grants, amounting to billions of dollars in funding. Many of these grants were directly funding clean water and lead prevention projects in communities across the country. Environmental Justice grants serving low-income communities were among the first to be cut.

And funding for programs like these seem unlikely to be restored anytime soon, as the administration also proposed a 55% cut to funding the EPA in FY26.

Why Sustained Investment Matters — Clean Water Fund’s Lead Prevention Programs in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania

Lead exposure impacts communities in cities and states across the country.

Clean Water Fund operates locally staffed environmental and health protection programs serving communities in 15 states and has targeted lead exposure prevention programs in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Funding cuts have resulted in loss of all project staffing and termination of 95% of these project activities.

In Massachusetts, two communities with some of the highest rates of lead poisoning in the state have been impacted — Malden and Chelsea. Clean Water Fund has been severely limited in its ability to provide in-person educational workshops to small groups of local residents in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin and Cantonese. They are no longer able to distribute water filters, disseminate information via multi-lingual media, and work with local leaders to begin exploring new ways to protect tenants from lead (particularly important when tenants do not feel safe asking landlords to make properties lead-safe).

Each year, 10–15 Massachusetts cities and towns are on the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s list of communities that are at “high risk” for childhood lead poisoning. Malden, Massachusetts has been on this list for over 30 years and had more lead service lines than any other community in the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority’s 61-town service area. At the end of 2025, 20% of the city’s water service lines were made of lead and another 20% lines of unknown material.

In Philadelphia, Clean Water Fund can no longer work with community-based organizations on neighborhood-based lead awareness programs, including providing soil testing, training community ambassadors to do outreach in their own neighborhoods, conducting presentations at gatherings in targeted communities, and tabling at local events.

One key lesson from long-term clean water efforts is the importance of continuity. Building awareness, trust, and effective local partnerships takes time. When funding or staffing is reduced, community-based programs can quickly lose momentum, and progress becomes fragmented.

Short-term or piecemeal approaches are often insufficient for addressing complex environmental health challenges. Sustained investment allows initiatives to maintain outreach, adapt to community needs, and support long-term improvements in infrastructure and public health outcomes.

Long-Term Effects of Lead Exposure

Lead exposure poses serious and lasting risks, particularly for children. Even low levels of exposure can affect cognitive development, learning, and behavior, with impacts that extend into adulthood. Parents often learn about these risks only after testing reveals elevated blood lead levels, underscoring the importance of proactive education and prevention.

Widespread lead exposure can place long-term strain on schools, health care systems, and social services. Preventive initiatives help reduce these downstream costs by addressing risks before harm occurs.

Clean Water Fund reports that every year over 2,000 children in Philadelphia are found with elevated blood lead levels permanently affecting their learning and behavior. Sources of lead in Philadelphia neighborhoods include thousands of lead drinking water lines, old lead paint, and legacy lead smelters that caused widespread soil contamination. These exposures are preventable with education and remediation.

“Preventing lead exposure improves community health in so many ways. It is an anti-violence, pro-education, food security, and housing rehabilitation program all at once,” stated Myron Arnowitt, Pennsylvania Director for Clean Water Fund.

Clean Water and Healthy Communities as a Shared Responsibility

Ensuring access to clean water and lead-safe housing is a shared responsibility among communities, public agencies, and nonprofit organizations. Successful long-term initiatives show that meaningful progress depends on collaboration, clear communication, and ongoing support.

By investing in education, infrastructure, and community engagement over time, clean water initiatives to curb lead exposures can help protect current and future generations from preventable harm.

“The only truly safe level of lead exposure is zero, and a child’s zip code or economic status should not dictate how close to that they can come,” said Lynn Thorp, President of Clean Water Fund. “With commitment, collaboration, and political will, all children can be protected from this insidious harm.”

We Must Act Now

Join the movement now to ensure that communities have safe drinking water and healthy housing. Charity Bridge Fund is mobilizing support for nonprofits like Clean Water Fund so that they can continue their vital work.