Public money at the tap
Who pays for a test
EPA will not mail a household a check or a bottle.
Federal programs already pay for sampling, lab analysis, public education, renter notice, inventory publication, and school testing.
The work is to become that qualifying activity, then let households ride along.
How public money reaches a tap
Do not ask a federal agency to subsidize a household purchase.
Fund a campaign that a state, school district, health department, or utility is already required or already funded to run.
01
Federal dollar
A program already pays for sampling, lab analysis, public education, renter notice, or school testing.
02
Eligible recipient
The award sits with a state, tribe, school district, utility, health department, or public-health nonprofit.
03
Kitchen-tap work
Past the Plant runs first-draw sampling, renter-capable notice, and a civic graph those agencies can use.
04
Household rides along
The occupant gets a certified test. They are a beneficiary, not a customer.
Children are the lead case
There is no safe blood-lead level.
Infants mix formula from the tap.
Most programs wait for a blood test, then look at the house.
Past the Plant finds the kitchen tap first, then lets child-health programs pay for the sample and the notice.
| Why it lands | What agencies already fund |
|---|---|
| No safe blood-lead level | CDC and EPA set the maximum contaminant level goal at zero. |
| Formula and first years | Tap water is the exposure route for bottle-fed infants. |
| Schools and child care | Children spend their days on fixtures utilities never sample. |
| Renters | The people least likely to get the utility letter are often families with young children. |
| Primary prevention | Find the tap first. Do not wait for a blood-lead spike to look at the house. |
What public rules already pay for
These are activities the platform actually does.
A certified household test is a sampling cost, not a gift card to a resident.
How a Chicago tap becomes free
Same product.
Different program numbers on the invoice.
The child does not pay.
Step 1
Schools and child care
Illinois or Chicago Public Schools uses WIIN funds to test centers and elementary schools. Staff and families see results in the same civic graph.
Step 2
The letter that did not arrive
Chicago or Illinois EPA uses outreach money to reach the roughly 900,000 people who were owed a service-line letter. The platform is renter-capable notice plus consumer-requested sampling.
Step 3
Homes already in a lead program
A Cook County HUD grantee tests drinking water in units it already treats. Those lab results land on the same map, snapped to a census block group.
Step 4
Only then a last-resort kit
A renter the inventory still lists as unknown, with no school and no HUD unit, may need a sponsored or paid certified kit. That is the last door, not the first.
The catalog
| Program | Pays for a home kit? | What it actually covers | The gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| LCRI consumer-requested tap sampling Anyone served by a lead, galvanized-requiring-replacement, or unknown service line | Sometimes | The water system must offer to sample the tap for lead on request. This is a utility duty, not an EPA check to a household. | Only applies if the inventory classified the line. Unknown or missing inventories leave people out. |
| Utility or city free-kit programs Residents of participating cities (example: NYC DEP, one kit per household) | Sometimes | A free mail-in lead kit and lab analysis, usually with a household cap. | Availability is local and uneven. Most cities do not offer this. |
| Local or state health department testing Households, often with priority for children or pregnant people | Sometimes | Free or reduced certified testing in some counties. EPA tells residents to start here — EPA will not test a home itself. | County-by-county. Many departments only test wells, or only after a blood-lead finding. |
| WIIN school and child-care lead testing Schools and licensed child-care programs, via the state | Sometimes | Testing and, after IIJA, remediation. EPA announced $26 million for states and territories in June 2025; more than $200 million since 2018. | Does not pay for a private kitchen tap. Useful for schools and clinics, not a home. |
| DWSRF set-asides (non-routine sampling) State programs and public water systems — not individual residents | No | Non-routine lead sampling (including schools and child care), inventories, outreach, and education. BIL also funds full lead-line replacement. | Routine compliance sampling, blood tests, bottled water, and household kit mailers to residents are ineligible. |
| HUD Lead Hazard Reduction / Healthy Homes Low-income pre-1978 housing treated by a city, county, or tribal grantee | Sometimes | HUD has said lead-grant funds may test drinking water as a direct hazard-control cost, and Healthy Homes supplements may replace leaded fixtures. | Residents cannot apply to HUD. They go through the local grantee, and water is secondary to paint. |
| CDC Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Health departments and bona fide agents; families of children at high risk or with an elevated blood-lead level | Sometimes | Surveillance, education, linkage to care, and environmental investigations that may include water sampling. Cannot pay medical treatment or pipe replacement. | Usually arrives after a blood-lead finding. Past the Plant’s job is to get CLPPP to fund primary prevention at the tap first. |
| Medicaid EPSDT environmental follow-up Medicaid-enrolled children; blood-lead tests at 12 and 24 months | Sometimes | Required screening plus, in some state plans, a medically necessary environmental investigation that can include water. Not abatement. | Past the Plant does not bill Medicaid. A health department that already does this follow-up can use the platform for the tap sample. |
| Title V Maternal and Child Health Block Grant State MCH programs; pregnant people, infants, and children, especially low-income | Sometimes | State-chosen child-health activities in the Title V action plan. Lead can sit under Child Health. Cannot be cash to families or most infrastructure. | Only if Illinois names tap-water prevention in its plan. |
| Head Start / Early Head Start lead-in-water duty Head Start facilities; every fixture used for drinking, cooking, or formula | Sometimes | 45 CFR 1302.47 requires a prevention plan and testing at least every two years where lead may exist. Program funds and WIIN can pay for tests and fixes. | Covers the center, not the child’s kitchen at home — unless CLPPP or HUD follows that family home. |
| USDA Rural Decentralized Water Systems Low-income rural homeowners, via a USDA nonprofit grantee | No | Loans or subgrants to build or rehab a private well or septic system — up to the house point of entry. | A well-repair program, not a municipal tap-kit program. |
| Certified lab kit (resident or sponsor) Anyone, including renters the utility never samples | Sometimes | Quantified lead and copper from an accredited lab, typically $55–$59 for a focused kit. Sponsors can underwrite a census tract. | This is the fallback after free utility and health-department options are exhausted. |
See what is free and what is paid work
What we will not claim
- That EPA will reimburse a household purchase of a kit.
- That DWSRF can buy bottled water or blood tests.
- That citizen tests replace official 90th-percentile compliance sampling.
- That a blood-lead test is a substitute for a tap test, or the reverse.
- That this page authorizes spending federal funds. Counsel and the awarding agency do that.
- That a child’s name or blood-lead value belongs on the public map. Facility and block group only.