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Louisville Water educators often visit classrooms at the Grace M. James Academy of Excellence. They help students understand how Louisville Water cleans and distributes water throughout our service area.
After studying problems with lead in Flint, Michigan, the students wanted to take the lessons a step further and learn more about lead in their community.
“We are currently working on our Weather and Water Unit, and we also do real-world connections in conjunction with our Open-SciED unit,” said sixth-grade teacher Deirdre Johnson. “I wrote a unit plan that covered lead poisoning and the Flint water crisis. I thought that it would be interesting and informative to talk about Louisville’s clean water system and compare it to the events in Michigan.”
Louisville Water’s education team was happy to help and explained to the students that there is no lead in Louisville Water’s system of pipes. In fact, we even treat water to make it non-corrosive and lower the risk of lead getting into drinking water through home plumbing.
Still, lead can become a potential risk in homes that have a private lead or galvanized steel service line or other pipes that contain lead.
For the students, “homework included working with the adults in their home and using Louisville Water’s online lookup tool to identify their pipe material,” said Barbara Crow, one of the company’s community relations specialists.
If the lookup tool indicated their home’s material was unknown, the students learned that they should locate their main water shutoff valve, take a photo of the pipe coming into the home [the service line], and upload the photo to Louisville Water.
The students also learned that if they have a private lead or galvanized steel service line, Louisville Water will replace it for free through our Service Line Replacement Program.
In the photos shown here, the students are holding a postcard that Louisville Water sent to thousands of customers to encourage them to check their pipe material. That will help Louisville Water reduce the number of “unknown” service lines in the community.
