Access to safe drinking water is a human right, and you have the ability to protect yourself and your community. Yet, water from our faucets is so plentiful that sometimes we take it for granted. Getting safe drinking water to our homes is actually complicated. Would you like to learn more about how drinking water comes to your home and how to ensure that your water is safe? Crowd the Tap is an EPA-funded public science project focused on eliminating the risk of lead in household drinking water. Lead can get into water from the pipes that transport water to homes. Most pipes were buried underground decades ago, before computers and digital records made it possible to create a comprehensive map. While many municipalities and private utilities are finding and replacing the shared portions of leaded pipe infrastructure, the private portions belonging to households are often left without support. An estimated 1 in 100 households receive water from leaded pipes. We direct the power of people like you and your community to take your water safety into your own hands. By completing the Crowd the Tap household assessment, including the water chemistry strip, you enable the project to screen your household to assess the level of risk for lead in water and locate potential hotspots of risk. Crowd the Tap can offer limited free laboratory testing and we prioritize based on this screening process.
As a community member, you have an important role to play in creating new knowledge and understanding of safe drinking water. Scientists can’t do it alone: your engagement in public science programs, making your voice heard on issues that matter to you, and increasing the diversity of people, places and ideas that make science relevant, is beneficial to everyone’s wellbeing.
Crowd the Tap is grateful for the partnership of the North Carolina Council of Churches in order to support safe drinking water for homes across North Carolina via their faith communities.
Interested in participating?
Learn more at CrowdtheTap.org where you’ll find instructional videos and text (and resources for teachers, if that’s of interest). Or to request water chemistry strips, email us at CrowdtheTap@ncsu.edu! Option 1: Participate as an individual! Email us with your name and address and we will send you one chemistry strip in the mail along with further information on how to complete the water chemistry test and household assessment.
Option 2: Become a faith community ambassador! Bring Crowd the Tap to your friends, family and neighbors and act as a frontline member of our team. Get a group together and through a combination of online tutorials and zoom calls (and maybe a visit from a student ambassador!), we will provide you with the preparation and resources to immerse in the world of water safety that you can share with your community. If you have any questions or just want to say “hi,” please email us at CrowdtheTap@ncsu.edu. |