[4] The program cited him for "playing a vital role in ensuring the safety of drinking water and in exposing deteriorating water-delivery infrastructure in America’s largest cities.
[2] At the time, WASA recommended that customers in areas served by lead pipes allow the water to run for 30 seconds to one minute as a precaution.
[2] When Edwards brought his concerns to WASA, the agency threatened to withhold future monitoring data and research funding from him unless he stopped working with the homeowners.
[2] After the Washington Post ran front-page stories in January 2004 about the problem, a Congressional hearing was held in March 2004 where Edwards testified.
[2][9] At the hearing, Edwards identified the cause of the readings as monochloramine, a disinfecting chemical that had replaced chlorine in the water supply in March 2000.
[9] Following the discontinuation of chloramine treatment in 2004, Edwards and his colleagues continued to study the long-term effects of the elevated water lead levels;[11] their article "Elevated Blood Lead in Young Children Due to Lead-Contaminated Drinking Water," published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, won that publication's Editor's Choice Award for the best science paper of 2009.
"[13] Edwards did not receive a response until March 2008, when Stephens wrote "We have examined CDC's role in the study and have found no evidence of misconduct.
"[13] As a result of Edwards's research, the United States House of Representatives' science and technology subcommittee conducted a congressional investigation into the matter.
[16] Following Edwards's recommendation, the DC water authority now warns homeowners with lead water-supply lines to let the tap run for ten minutes before drinking or cooking.
[5] During his work on the Washington water quality, said Bill Knocke, head of Virginia Tech's civil and environmental engineering department, Edwards was so concerned about the public health impact that he was hospitalized due to the stress.
He told them that the number one cause of waterborne disease outbreaks in the United States is pathogens growing in home water heaters.
[22] Responding to a 2009 Associated Press investigation of contaminants found in the drinking water of schools across the United States, Edwards was quoted as saying "If a landlord doesn't tell a tenant about lead paint in an apartment, he can go to jail.
[24] In 2011, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Public Health Law Research Program funded a $450,000 study of the 1991 Lead and Copper Rule, an EPA regulation relating to drinking water.
[34] In July 2018, Edwards filed a $3 million defamation lawsuit against Flint mother Melissa Mays and two other activists Paul Schwartz and Yanna Lambrinidou.
The ruling noted, "the Flint water crisis is a paradigmatic example of a matter of public concern where the freedom to call for an ‘investigation’ into the activities of those in positions of significant persuasive power and influence is essential.”[35] On November 7, 2019, Edwards was interviewed on Detroit's NPR station, WDET in Season 2 of the station's podcast series titled, "Created Equal," which focused on the people involved with the Flint Water Crisis.
[36] In 2019, Edwards headed a Virginia Tech research team to investigate elevated salt levels in water wells on 100 farms in Fishers Landing, NY.