Door Hanger Outreach And Incentives Did Not Induce Water System Customers to Participate in Lead Water Pipe Inspections

Ludovica Gazze, Heather Klemick, Bryan Parthum and Ann Wolverton

No 348904, National Center for Environmental Economics-NCEE Working Papers from United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Abstract: The Environmental Protection Agency has finalized regulations to require water systems to replace millions of lead pipes with safer alternatives for carrying drinking water into U.S. homes. Before replacing them, public water systems must first identify where these lead service lines are located due to incomplete inventories and a lack of historical records. We conducted a randomized controlled trial to evaluate an intervention that targeted properties with unknown pipe material in Trenton, New Jersey—a community with older housing stock and a high concentration of people of color, renters, and households experiencing poverty. The intervention included two treatments: door hangers with information about a self-inspection process that allowed residents to submit a photo of their service line; and similar door hangers offering gift card incentives upon submission of a self-inspection photo. These treatments did not motivate residents to participate in a self-inspection of their service lines. Well under 1% of treated addresses participated in a self-inspection, including those offered the highest gift card incentive of $100.

Keywords: Environmental; Economics; and; Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 19
Date: 2025-01
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/348904/files/2024-09.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:nceewp:348904

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.348904

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in National Center for Environmental Economics-NCEE Working Papers from United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().