Junction Coalition, a Toledo Community Organization, has partnered with Freshwater Future to tackle water related issues such as: lead service lines, harmful algae blooms (HABS), water disconnection, and many more water related disparities directly and indirectly impacting minority and low socioeconomic communities the most.
Collaborating on the many topics threatening the community; another partner, Blue Conduit, presents themselves to Freshwater Future, pitching a focus on lead line identification utilizing artificial intelligence. Using records provided by the city and water department, assimilates the information and produces a predictive algorithm to better, and more accurately pinpoint lead lines throughout the city before a single hole has to be dug. Junction Coalition went to the city urging them to permit the strategy while demonstrating the benefits of cost effectiveness and efficiency resulting in more productive uses of their time and resources. Replacing lead lines can cost approximately $3,000 – $10,000 per home which can be expensive when using a portion of funds for trial and error locating lead lines which became very clear to the city thus making Blue Conduit the superior option.
Experts from all around the city pooled together their time, expertise, and resources from University of Toledo, Lucas County Health Department, the City, Blue Conduit, Freshwater Future, and Junction Coalition to devise a plan to appropriate the funding necessary to utilize artificial intelligence to pinpoint lead lines. Once the plan was conjured it was sent to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) with the funding request led by the city of Toledo entitled Using Artificial Intelligence to Reduce Lead Exposure proposal. This past Monday the Director of Environmental Justice Environmental Protection Agency, Matthew Tajeda, responded to the fund with an approval of $200,000 for the proposal. Granting the proposal permits Blue Conduit to generate more actionable data faster for the city of Toledo and allow them to accelerate the removal of lead lines while developing and implementing an educational campaign aimed at the most vulnerable communities to reduce the exposure to lead from residents as they replace the lines within Toledo.
The City, BlueConduit, Freshwater Future, The University of Toledo, Toledo-Lucas County Health Department and local partners therefore propose this project with the goal of reducing lead exposure, through well-tested, data-driven prioritization techniques. Using a predictive model, this project will assess home-by-home water service line material probabilities based on existing parcel and neighborhood-level data and a representative sample of water service lines in the city taken by the project team. These probabilities will guide which homes should receive targeted education, water filters and ultimately the prioritization of the lead service line (LSL) replacement program. Throughout the entirety of this project, stakeholder meetings will be held and educational materials will be created with a focus on these high-risk communities, with the goal of minimizing resident lead exposure. This proposal, led by the City, combines the technical task of identifying lead lines, conducted by Blue Conduit, with a community education effort, to be implemented by the non-profit Freshwater Future.
For this project, Freshwater Future will work with grassroots community groups in Toledo to reach residents in the most vulnerable neighborhoods (6 identified residential environmental justice communities) to disseminate information and educational materials about lead in water; proper filter use and maintenance; reducing exposure during lead line replacements; and community participatory actions for water quality control. Freshwater Future is prepared to provide an online platform of education and services to ensure the safety of community members and supplement with on-the-ground when possible. Freshwater Future will work with community partners regarding public health and water quality as it relates to disenfranchised communities. We will provide four video-trainings for communities on water filter installation, proper filter use and maintenance. The training will provide background on health impacts of lead exposure and access to community and health department resources. Instruction on using personal protective equipment during pandemics will be covered. These training will benefit all partners through education, navigation of resources and public health. In addition, we will provide training on collection of water samples for lead analysis and test up to 60 homes identified through the Blue Conduit mapping process.
Freshwater Future brings extensive experience in working with grassroots community groups and environmental justice communities following a strict code of principles for collaborating with community. As mentioned earlier, we have worked for several years on helping communities with lead in water issues. We are also fortunate to have staff members who are Toledo residents with deep ties to several of the targeted communities, starting from a position of shared trust. In addition, we will provide funding for the citizen science testing of resident wells.
We look forward to being a part of this innovative project to provide critical data that the City of Toledo can use to ultimately speed-up lead line replacements, reducing lead exposure to Toledo’s most vulnerable residents while engaging residents in understanding more about water threats and actions that protect public health.
Blog – Freshwater Future
https://freshwaterfuture.org/uncategorized/city-of-toledo-receives-epa-grant-to-utilize-artificial-intelligence-to-identify-lead-water-lines/