New Orleans Develops The New Orleans Water Service Line Map With Technical Support From BlueConduit

New Orleans, like many cities dealing with lead service lines (LSLs) in the United States, lacks a comprehensive map that identifies the location of its LSLs. On April 24, 2023, the city announced the development of an online, interactive map – called the News Orleans Water Service Line Map – that will allow city residents to learn the known or likely composition of their home water pipes.

The map will ensure the city’s compliance with the U.S. EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule 2022 Revisions before the October 16, 2024 deadline. It also supports the Biden administration’s goals of eliminating lead from the nation’s water supply.

BLUE CONDUIT’S ROLE

BlueConduit is providing technical support to the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans (SWBNO) for the development of the map. This map will allow residents to learn the current pipe material at their homes, find information about pipe inspections at their address, and access resources for steps they can take to protect themselves and their families if their homes have lead service lines. Along with BlueConduit, multiple other partners are involved:

• The Water Collaborative of Greater New Orleans, Total Community Action and Civic Studio are leading a corresponding public engagement program, including education, map access and community input.
• WE ACT for Environmental Justice and the Natural Resources Defense Council will provide funding support and connect New Orleans with other cities that have done this work, and learn best practices. Google.org is providing funding for the work of WE ACT for Environmental Justice, NRDC, and BlueConduit.

To learn more about BlueConduit’s role in development of the New Orleans Water Service Line Map, view this YouTube video.

KEY QUOTE

"The essential first step in ‘getting the lead out’ is to locate the lead, and in a city as old as New Orleans, that task is complicated. BlueConduit is proud to provide the data science, analytics, and innovative technology behind this effort to prioritize New Orleans’ residents who are most vulnerable and at risk for lead exposure." -Eric Schwartz, BlueConduit Co-founder and Co-CEO

COMPANY FACTS

Headquarters: Ann Arbor, Michigan

Founded: 2016 Co-founders: Eric Schwartz and Jacob Abernethy

About: BlueConduit is a water analytics company that has developed a cutting-edge, predictive machine learning approach to locate lead service lines, empowering local officials and their engineering partners with the information to efficiently remove those pipes. Since 2016, BlueConduit has worked with more than 200 municipalities and inventoried 2+ million service lines, which serve more than 5 million people.