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Westport students create map to track lead contamination in Connecticut's water pipes.WESTPORT — Back in November Staples High School students Sahil Vora and Ignacy Nieweglowski went door to door in Westport handing out lead paper strip test kits they bought off Amazon.That effort has since grown to Lead Watch, a website with a heat map that helps track lead in Connecticut's water through submitted data.It is run by Vora and Nieweglowski, now juniors, and five other students.Advertisement Article continues below this ad Their effort to educate their community about the dangers of lead in water and provide free testing kits to identify lead-contaminated water recently earned Vora and Nieweglowski the President's Environmental Youth Award from the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency for their work on the project.“We're happy that so many people recognize that what we do actually can have an impact and getting that assured us that what we were doing is definitely the right cause,” Nieweglowski said.Connecticut has been grappling with the issue of lead in pipes across the state.Advertisement Article continues below this ad Want more Norwalk Hour?In 2024, Aquarion sent out letters to thousands of Connecticut residents warning them of lead, galvanized or unknown materials making up the pipes in their homes.The water company, which serves almost 60 Connecticut municipalities, told customers there is no lead in its distribution system.The company, however, does not have control over the customer-owned pipes and the indoor plumbing or fixtures.Customers are responsible for the portion of the service line from the curb valve, which is usually near the property line, to their home or business, the company said.Advertisement Article continues below this ad Connecticut received $27.5 million from the federal government in May to replace thousands of lead pipes carrying water across the state.According to previous reporting, there are believed to be up to 8,000 lead services lines in use as of July.“We hope that if we get enough people concerned, that again we can make some systemic change,” Nieweglowski said.Vora and Nieweglowski said they originally intended to develop a cheap way to detect dangerous forever chemicals, known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, with the intention of launching a career in academia.They cold called and emailed professors at Yale, Harvard and other universities looking for information on how to do that.At one point, they met a professor at Yale working with hundreds of people to do the same thing, Vora said.Advertisement Article continues below this ad “He told us there's no way,” Nieweglowski said.“What you guys are doing is what we're working on.” So, the two needed to pivot, Nieweglowski said.A teacher of theirs told them about lead contamination in water from lead pipes and the dangers those pose to people.Nieweglowski said lead “didn't seem as much of an issue to us at the time,” until they started researching it.There is “no known safe level” of lead in a child’s blood, according to the EPA.In adults, exposure can lead to increased blood pressure and incidence of hypertension and reproductive problems.Advertisement Article continues below this ad The two launched Lead Watch late in their sophomore year.Word got out about what they were doing and local blogger Dan Woog wrote a piece about them.News of the high schooler’s efforts made way to Noah Systems, a Chicago-based company that creates water systems that keeps water moving to reduce the amount of lead that seeps into the water.The company is providing the high schoolers with money and other material support, such as the automatic flushing systems that reduce lead exposure in water, which the two said they aim to install in schools around their school district.They want to cover the installation through a fundraising effort through the Sustainable CT’s Community Match Fund, which would also help pay for testing the water for lead.Advertisement Article continues below this ad “Everything that has happened since that contact with Noah Systems has really been thanks to them,” Nieweglowski said.Vora said there are not “easily accessible or up to date reports on lead contaminants” in Connecticut.Nieweglowski said the group’s goal is to find the data, make it easy to access for people “and then be able to get the right actors involved.” The two are now working with Noah System Co.to create other chapters of Lead Watch in cities across the country, such as in Milwaukee and Chicago.Their efforts in Connecticut, though, have resulted in them seeing their friends and neighbors testing their water, and in one case, replacing their lead pipes.Advertisement Article continues below this ad People can submit their own lead tests for their water at https://leadwatchhti.org/.This story includes reporting by Liz Hardaway, Luca Powell and Austin Mirmina.