Case Study - Lynchburg, VA
Case Study: Creating and Using a Local Lead Action Plan - City of Lynchburg,
Virginia
The City of Lynchburg officials attended the Mid-Atlantic Lead Forum in October 2019. They
shared their successes and challenges on addressing lead in drinking water, due to having old
city infrastructure and lack of inventory of existing lead service lines. With policies and procedures
already in place to work on the lead in drinking water issue, the City of Lynchburg then decided to
explore addressing lead through the Community Revitalization Department.
Discussion with EPA
Following the Mid-Atlantic Lead Forum, representatives of the City of Lynchburg and EPA Region
3 organized a brief call to recap the Forum and to discuss the City of Lynchburg's lead issues and
plan for moving forward. It was clear that the City of Lynchburg was already addressing lead in
some ways, and there were also a few ideas for how lead exposure reduction could be
incorporated into emerging city plans and existing programs. EPA shared some lead information
about existing Federal programs to consider as sources of information and funding as well. EPA
Region 3 and City of Lynchburg had a few more calls, to share updates on respective lead
programs. With multiple objectives and activities in mind, EPA Region 3 shared the Local Lead
Action Plan template as a tool to help the City of Lynchburg organize their plan.
Making a Local Lead Action Plan
It started with a vision about what the City could achieve. The vision is broken into Goals (short-
and long-term), and then Activities to support or achieve those goals are identified. The Local
Lead Action Plan template was a way for the City of Lynchburg representatives to capture their
lead objectives and actions, some of which were already in progress, and others which were still
potential opportunities. Objectives including short- and long-term goals were easily filled in, as
they were already in mind. Next, a few priority activities were added to the plan, with descriptions
containing the estimated timeframes, partners, stakeholders and a short list of the critical steps
necessary to advance these activities. Activities such as exploring options for layering funding
opportunities and pursuing lead-related grants were included in the plan. Such activities allow for
gathering information and resources in support of longer term goals. The City of Lynchburg
compiled these various activities for addressing lead into a 3-page plan using the Local Lead
Action Plan Template.
The City then shared the Lynchburg Local Lead Action Plan with EPA. to jointly identify
opportunities where EPA, other Federal agencies, or EPA partners, could potentially assist or
where referrals or connections could be made, to support the City of Lynchburg in achieving their
proposed activities. For example, an activity such as doing lead-related outreach to landlords,
presented a straightforward opportunity for EPA to collaborate, since EPA lead-based paint
program already provides outreach to landlords. For activities such as creating a local ordinance
where EPA has no jurisdiction, EPA could still share examples and refer to other local
jurisdictions or the state for further information.
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Continuing Work on the Local Lead Action Plan
From creating a map of the City of Lynchburg with various layers of lead-related data, to putting a
up a new webpage on the City of Lynchburg's building permit website, the City representatives
continued to advance and complete the activities listed on their Local Lead Action Plan. Despite
challenges and competing priorities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, over the course of one year,
the City of Lynchburg made great progress on the Lynchburg Local Lead Action Plan.
Throughout the year, City of Lynchburg and EPA Region 3 held approximately quarterly calls.
This was an opportunity for City of Lynchburg to share updates on the activities in the plan, and
for EPA to provide suggestions and assistance as needed to help advance the activities if
possible. Additionally, communication continued in between those meetings, with EPA Region 3
continuing to share events and opportunities of potential interest via email and the EPA Region 3
Lead Newsletter.
Approximately one year later, the City of Lynchburg is poised to revise their Local Lead Action
Plan. Many activities are complete and new priority actions can be added to advance the short-
and long-term goals in the plan. EPA hopes to continue this partnership with the City of
Lynchburg and support the City's new and ongoing activities.
Case Study: Lead Maps - City of Lynchburg, Virginia
To supplement a few of the activities listed in the City of Lynchburg's Local Lead Action Plan, the
City decided to make a map to visualize data and assist in targeting priority areas to focus efforts.
EPA Provides Support and Data
EPA Region 3 has experts in using mapping tools, such as EJSCREEN. While EJSCREEN is a
publicly available tool that anyone can access and use via the internet, EPA experts can quickly
use the tool to create maps with relevant data, already included as layers in the EJCREEN tool,
such as the Lead-Paint Index, Pre-1960 housing stock, and children under age 5. EPA experts
created a few EJSCREEN maps for City of Lynchburg.
The City then used these maps as base layers and added on their own local datasets relevant to
the community planning activity in their Local Lead Action Plan. Various data layers could be
added or removed depending on the specific activity. For example, a layer of rental housing could
be added in order to target areas of focus for a landlord lead outreach activity. A layer of local
building permits could be added in order to target areas of focus for renovation, repair, and
painting rule compliance assistance.
The City of Lynchburg can continue to use and modify these maps as needed, to support its
ongoing efforts and activities identified in the Local Lead Action Plan. EPA can also assist in
providing any additional data layers that Lynchburg may be interested in adding in the future. If
EPA does not have data of interest, EPA may be able to refer the City to another agency or entity
that does have the data.
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This map shows some of the results from the EPA's EJSCREEN tool.
Lynchburg, VA - EJ Index for Lead Paint (95th%ile) Overview
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This map shows some of the additional local data that the City of Lynchburg uses to target and focus activities identified in
their Local Lead Action Plan.
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