Columbus is the latest city in Ohio to tap a state program to replace toxic lead service lines at licensed childcare facilities.
Through a partnership with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and Governor Mike DeWine’s H2Ohio initiative, the city will replace lead and galvanized service lines at childcare facilities that are served by Columbus Water and Power.
Mayor Andrew Ginther says the city plans to have all lead service lines removed by 2037, but childcare centers are a priority.
"It’s for the entire city," Ginther said. "Our hope is with the governor's help and the director's help, daycare centers and home care providers will go to the front of the line, because quite honestly, the children in their care are the most vulnerable."
Children up to the age of six are most vulnerable to lead poisoning, according to the Ohio Department of Public Health. Childhood lead exposure can cause life-long health effects like brain damage and with learning or behavioral challenges.
Preliminary mapping is largely completed, Ohio EPA Director John Logue said, which allowed the agency to identify the location of lead and galvanized service lines and figure state-wide.
"Some of the prior investments that I talked about earlier have been mapping all of the lead service lines across the state of Ohio. So we've completed the vast majority of that work working with all the water systems, and now it is just a matter of funding and prioritization."
The H2Ohio program has supported similar lead line replacement projects in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo since its establishment in 2019.
Columbus will receive $500,000 from the state to support the work.
Gov. Mike DeWine said funding from the H2Ohio initiative is essential to addressing all sources of lead poisoning in the state, not to mention water quality overall.
"We still worry about Lake Erie, we still work on that, but ... we've used some of the money for for wetlands," DeWine said. "Focus remains on ... quality of the water and this is this is part of it. So it's a question of money. If we have more money, we can do more."
