Infrastructure Upgrades and Lead Exposure: Do Cities Face Trade-Offs When Replacing Water Mains?
Authors
Gazze, Ludovica
Heissel, Jennifer A.
Subjects
Advisors
Date of Issue
2019-11
Date
2019-11
Publisher
Naval Postgraduate School
Language
en_US
Abstract
Concerns about drinking water contamination through lead service lines may hinder resource-constrained municipalities from performing important infrastructure upgrades. Construction on water mains may shake the service lines and increase lead levels in drinking water. We estimate the effects of water main maintenance on drinking water and children’s blood levels exploiting over 2,500 water main replacements in Chicagoa city with almost 400,000 lead service linesand unique geocoded data. By comparing tests in homes at different distances from replaced mains before and after replacementwe find no evidence that water main replacement affects water or children’s lead levels.
Type
Preprint
Description
DRAFT version
Series/Report No
Department
Graduate School of Defense Management (GSDM)
Organization
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Funder
Format
51 p.
Citation
Gazze, Ludovica, and Jennifer Heissel. "Infrastructure Upgrades and Lead Exposure: Do Cities Face Trade-Offs When Replacing Water Mains?." (2019).
Distribution Statement
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.