Newburgh Mayor Torrance Harvey traveled to the White House to discuss the City Council’s leadership on clean water initiatives at the National Water Summit on April 23. This visit marks Mayor Harvey’s fourth trip to the White House at President Biden’s invitation since January 2023. 

Harvey was welcomed by Deputy Assistant to the President & Deputy National Climate Advisor, Mary Frances Repko, to present the City of Newburgh’s nation-leading effort to remove lead lines from its drinking water system, and to advocate for the Biden-Harris Administration’s “America the Beautiful Freshwater Challenge” – a partnership with local governments to conserve, restore, and protect America’s rivers, lakes, streams, and wetlands. The Newburgh City Council was recognized by the White House for its nation-leading drinking water protection initiatives, particularly its lead service line replacement program (LSLRP).

The Newburgh City Council has allocated more than $1.6 million to survey, catalog, and replace lead service lines within the water distribution system. In 2022, the City Council allocated nearly $600,000 to purchase a Vac-Con Hydro Excavator to undertake a complete lead service line inventory. The City is actively working to inventory all 6,675 service line connections, and 201 lead service lines have been replaced. The City Council’s equity centered LSLRP recognizes that all residents deserve clean water regardless of income and covers up to $10,000 in service line replacement costs per connection. 

Harvey also recently traveled to Albany, where he was invited to present on the City Council’s LSLRP at the Rockefeller Institute of Government’s “Leading on Lead Service Line Replacement in New York State” symposium. Mayor Harvey was invited to address state and federal leaders in the drinking water industry to share Newburgh’s success in designing and implementing its equity-centered approach to lead service line replacement.