State Representative Representative Dontavius Jarrells (D-Columbus) is pushing for new legislation in Ohio to protect children and families from lead-contaminated drinking water lines.
House Bill 534 would implement a comprehensive approach to addressing lead lines in the state by requiring the full replacement of all lead drinking lines within 15 years.
"Not a partial remediation, a full replacement of these lead lines," Jarrells said, "so that every family, regardless if I go to my mom's house, my aunties house, my cousin's house, I'm drinking clean, safe water."
There are more than 745,000 lead drinking water lines in Ohio, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Cleveland ranks second highest in the country for cities with active lead lines.
Jarrells experienced the developmental effects of lead poisoning first-hand while growing up in Cleveland's Hough neighborhood. With the help of his family, he said he was able to find essential support and resources, but other families may not be so lucky.
"Not every person has health care access, and so that may not be a reality for some families, and the devastating impact of lead poisoning, the cognitive impairments that it will cause, the physical issues that it will create, cardiovascular disease, all of those things," he said. "It is real for people and we are paying for it one way or another as a society by not removing lead as much as we can out of the state."
Robin Brown is president of Concerned Citizens Organized Against Lead. In 1999, her own daughter was diagnosed with severe lead poisoning.
"I knew I was going to have to deal with this by myself. But I also knew I was not going to let a manmade disease kill my daughter or take my daughter away from me."
Lead contamination can affect all people, Brown said, but in Ohio, lead positioning has disproportionally affected Black and brown residents.
"The difference is people in marginalized, redlined communities do not have the resource to fix the repairs and remediation as quickly. Therefore, it lingers within our environment longer."
By passing House Bill 534 into law, Brown said legislators would spare other families from going through the same hardships her family did.
