Access to clean drinking water is a human right, and you have the ability to protect yourself and your community. Crowd the Tap is a public science project focused on identifying and addressing lead contamination in household drinking water. Using information about the age of your home and the pipes in your home, we determine your household risk of lead contamination. Anyone found to be at risk for lead contamination will receive free lead-in-water testing of their household tap water while funding is available.

Screen your home for risk of lead in water now!

After you screen your home, you will receive immediate notification as to whether or not we recommend testing your tap water for lead.

Two post-screening options

Those whose screening results indicate risk of lead contamination will have the opportunity to pursue free testing while supplies and grant funds are available. We offer two types of testing:

1. Laboratory testing + An at-home lead test called the lemon test

Lead in water can be in a dissolved state or a particulate state. Some at-home tests can detect dissolved lead, but we have found none that can reliably detect particulate lead. Virginia Tech researchers recently developed a DIY hack to make some at-home lead testing kits accurately detect lead. We call this the Lemon Test because it involves adding lemon juice to water to dissolve the solid lead particles making them more detectable. While this has successfully identified lead in the lab, we want to make sure that it works in real people’s homes. We will then confirm these results with laboratory testing of the water in your home. Learn how to conduct a lemon test.

SUBMIT LEMON TEST RESULTS

2. Laboratory testing only

You follow a simple protocol to collect water, and use the pre-paid address label to mail your water to the lab for testing. Learn how to sample your water for laboratory analysis. Within a few weeks, we will send you a report back with the results of your lab test and recommendations for how to protect your household.