The Water Co Promise
One free install in a family that needs it for every 10 paid installs.
The 10th install of every cycle goes free to a low-income St. Louis household with a young child, prioritized by neighborhoods with confirmed lead service lines. The free install includes 5 years of filter service. It's how we set up the company, not a marketing afterthought.
Why we do it
Lead doesn't ask which ZIP code you live in.
The 2026 Washington University Environmental Racism in St. Louis report explicitly recommends free or subsidized point-of-use filters for low-income families with young children, particularly in north city, East St. Louis, and Cahokia Heights, where drinking-water and infrastructure problems compound long-running environmental-justice failures.
The CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the World Health Organization all agree there is no safe level of lead for a developing child. The City of St. Louis has roughly 9,000 confirmed lead service lines and another ~58,000 lines of unknown material. Even where corrosion-control treatment keeps lead-at-the-tap below the federal action level, disturbances to the line, nearby street work, a meter replacement, sustained high flow, can release lead spikes a household tap test wouldn’t catch.
Reverse osmosis removes lead at the point of consumption, after every pipe, every joint, every fitting in the home. It’s the cheapest, fastest, most certain fix available while the lead-line replacement program plays out over the next decade. The Water Co Promise simply makes sure the families who can’t afford to buy that fix aren’t the ones left waiting for it.
How it works
A 10-to-1 ratio, numbered installs, real partners.
Eligibility (verified by our partners, not us)
Household income
At or below 200% of the federal poverty line, verified through a partner organization, not by us.
A child under 6 in the home
Pediatric guidance is unambiguous about the cumulative risk of low-level lead exposure on developing nervous systems.
Lead-line concentration or EWG-flagged ZIP
Either a confirmed lead service line per the City Water Division inventory, or residence in an EWG-flagged high-priority ZIP.
Why 10-to-1 (and not 1-to-1)
A 1-to-1 (TOMS-style) ratio sounds great in marketing, but for an install-heavy business like ours it doesn’t pencil out, which is why those programs often quietly disappear after six months. A 10-to-1 ratio is sized to actually run for a long time. As we grow, we plan to move the ratio toward 5-to-1.
Every install is numbered
Both the paying customer and the recipient family receive a printed certificate showing the install number. The 10th install of every cycle triggers the free install. You can ask us at any time which install you were and which household it helped, we’ll tell you, with the recipient’s permission.
Partner organizations
We work with credible local intermediaries to identify eligible households, never run applications ourselves. Schools, pediatricians, and WIC clinics are great direct referral sources because eligibility is already documented.
- Affinia Healthcare
- Beyond Housing
- Habitat for Humanity Saint Louis
- Operation Food Search
- Local pediatric clinics
- WIC clinics
Partner names listed are placeholders pending signed agreements. Replace once partnerships are confirmed.
Annual impact report
Year 1 impact coming in 2027.
Our first annual impact report will publish total installs, gallons of filtered water delivered, ZIP codes served, and the partner organizations supported. Until then, this section is a placeholder, and a public commitment.
Are you a nonprofit partner?
Tell us about a household that needs water.
If you work with families who would benefit from a free RO install, pediatric clinics, schools, WIC programs, housing nonprofits, drop us a note. We'll reach back within 4 business hours.
Help the program grow
Every paid install funds the next free one.
The math is direct. Every Water Co System installed shrinks the queue of families waiting on the give-back program. The most useful thing you can do, even if you're not in St. Louis, is share the free water report with someone who is.