A. O. Smith Corp and United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County announced a partnership with City of Milwaukee Health Department and Mayor Tom Barrett to provide Aquasana-branded water filtration products to city residents living in homes with lead service lines. 

The two products offered through the program, the Aquasana Claryum countertop unit and the Claryum “Clean Water Machine” powered water filtration pitcher, are NSF-certified to remove more than 99 percent of lead from drinking water as well as more than 65 other potentially harmful contaminants including heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, cysts, and organic pollutants such as pesticides. 

The City of Milwaukee Health Department will coordinate the distribution of the filtration products and replacement filters as well as who qualifies for them in partnership with Social Development Commission and Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers.  The program will focus on households with pregnant women and/or children under the age of six.

While Milwaukee treats its drinking water to reduce the risk of lead exposure, and Milwaukee water continues to meet EPA testing guidelines, public health recommendations for residents in homes with lead service lines and young children or pregnant women in the home include the use of a water filter certified to remove lead. 

The City of Milwaukee Health Department received the initial delivery of countertop and powered units and will be coordinating distribution beginning mid-November.  The initial purchase also included replacement filters for both products. 

A. O. Smith and Aquasana also announced a special discount program for residents of the Greater Milwaukee area who do not qualify for the Mayor’s program and wish to purchase Aquasana water filtration systems to remove lead from their drinking water.  A significant discount will be available through the end of 2016 to residents who purchase Aquasana water filters online at www.aquasana.com using the password “Milwaukee.”  Aquasana also is offering replacement filters at a special discounted price, which includes extended warranties and free shipping through its “water for life” program. 

In addition to A. O. Smith, the partnership is being underwritten by grants from United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County and the health system members of the Milwaukee Health Care Partnership:  Aurora Health Care; Ascension Wisconsin; Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin; and Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin. 

Austin-based Aquasana, which was acquired by A. O. Smith in August, handled a similar water purification product program in Flint, Mich., earlier this year.