Safe Drinking Water

Detroit native Jeremy Orr combines his personal experience and community organizing roots with his legal expertise to help communities of color in Michigan and Illinois dismantle environmental racism.

The result of a citizen suit brought by NRDC and NEW Caucus, the proposed settlement would ensure a continued commitment by the City of Newark to protecting the public from the toxic heavy metal.

The federal Lead and Copper Rule must be overhauled.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency can improve public awareness by fixing defects in the Safe Drinking Water Act’s right-to-know reports.

Rather than strengthening the desperately outdated Lead and Copper Rule to protect people’s—especially children’s—health, the agency chose to weaken it.

If the EPA doesn’t overhaul its Lead and Copper Rule, lead-contaminated drinking water will continue to be a widespread problem in the United States.

Millions of kids drink water from lead service lines—it's like drinking from a lead straw! The House of Representatives could provide $22.5 billion to fund removal of these pipes through the Tlaib/Kildee/Slotkin Amendment to the Moving Forward Act (H.R.2).

NRDC has developed model state legislation that would require schools and child care centers to install filters on drinking water taps, conduct lead testing, and remediate problems.

Nearly three years after winning a $97 million legal settlement that required the city of Flint to replace its lead water service lines, NRDC is still on the ground holding officials accountable, and using similar tactics as we demand clean water for the residents of Newark.

Tips on how parents can make sure their child’s drinking water at school is lead-free.

Residents of cities like Pittsburgh and Newark continue to face high levels of this toxic metal in their drinking water supplies. Here’s what to do if this crisis affects you.

America is facing its second lead crisis. This time around, the effects are less obvious, but no less worrying.

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha is helping to bring attention to the high lead levels in Newark, New Jersey’s drinking water—some of the highest recently recorded by a large water system in the United States.

We need strong action to protect children and every American from toxic lead. There is no safe level of lead; until strong and meaningful regulator action cuts continued exposure, little progress will be made.

The devastating lead contamination of the tap water in Flint, Michigan, highlights potentially disastrous gaps in the provision of safe drinking water to all Americans—especially the most vulnerable.

While the Safe Drinking Water Act guarantees all Americans access to clean, drinkable water, it hasn’t worked out that way in practice.

America has a drinking water crisis. An NRDC study has found that contaminants that may harm human health are found in tap water in every state in the nation.

Managing the risk of these “forever chemicals” has focused primarily on one chemical—out of thousands—at a time. It doesn’t work, so we must change this system to protect public health.

The public health crisis with PFAS, or "forever toxic chemicals," in the drinking water of millions of Americans will not be solved by the Safe Drinking Water Act. Why we need to fix the law to protect the public.

The state has joined the ranks of states that are leading the way in protecting public drinking water from PFAS.

Yesterday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released draft interim recommendations for addressing groundwater contaminated with PFOA and PFOS. EPA’s proposal would leave Americans across the country who live near contaminated sites unprotected from potentially dangerous levels of these toxic forever chemicals.

NRDC makes recommendations regarding standards that Michigan should adopt to safeguard public health from the widespread and dangerously toxic chemicals linked to cancer and other serious illnesses.

This ubiquitous class of chemicals is already present in millions of Americans’ drinking water.

These toxic chemicals are so common in consumer products and manufacturing that they’re practically everywhere—including inside our bodies.

For years the state has ignored its foamy rivers and water supplies contaminated with chemicals called PFASs.

What’s lurking in your lake? NRDC’s assessment of freshwater harmful algal bloom programs in the United States shows what states are doing—or not doing—to keep the public informed and protected.

Freshwater HABs damage inland ecosystems; threaten public health; poison pets, livestock, and fish; and compromise recreational economies. Every single state has experienced a HAB, but a NRDC assessment of states’ freshwater HAB programs shows that states are not doing enough to protect their residents, families, and pets from exposure.

Ugly, foul-smelling and sometimes toxic, algal blooms are becoming more common in freshwater ecosystems like rivers, lakes, ponds, and reservoirs. Here’s a look at how excess algae can impact the environment—and human health.

A joint United States–Canada report maps out the way to clean up the world’s largest freshwater ecosystem

Toxic algal blooms are suffocating waterways from the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Erie.

Reducing nutrient pollution across an entire watershed is no small feat. However, farmers can decrease runoff from their fields by improving soil health, which reduces the need for synthetic fertilizers. Planting cover crops—crops that keep the soil covered and provide a supply of nutrients—and using diverse crop rotations can make soil more fertile while also improving water quality.