Even though lead in drinking water harms children’s development, the Environmental Protection Agency has forced very few cities to replace their lead pipes.
Consider Chicago, with more lead water pipes than any US city, about 400,000. About 7% of homes that requested sampling last year exceeded federal limits, and in at least 73 homes , that was double, according to an AP analysis of more than 3,500 samples taken using a more sensitive method than the federal government’s.
Yet that number of homes was never enough to trigger the pipe removal warrant.
That’s because EPA standards only say that most homes — not all — can’t contain dangerous amounts of lead.
Since Chicago was never required to remove its lead pipe, it left most of it in the ground, relying instead on water treatment to reduce lead levels.
State and local officials say they had limited funds that needed to be used elsewhere. They also say local rules have made the job of moving more difficult and more expensive.
WATER ADMINISTRATION WORKS
In 2012, the city began rapidly replacing its old water pipes. These are usually cast iron, not lead. When road crews came across the lead pipes that branch off and serve individual homes, they replaced only a short piece near the main water main with copper. Thousands and thousands of times they reburied the junction and left the rest.
Just as the city was ending this effort, the Illinois legislature made this method illegal.
Miguel Del Toral, a former EPA regulator who was also a whistleblower on the Flint, Michigan lead pipe disaster, said Chicago was unaware of the toxic effects of lead in the potable water.
“During the water main replacement program, no one recognized there was a problem,” he said.
Del Toral wasn’t the only one to oppose the city’s actions. Two Chicago residents filed a proposed class action lawsuit in 2017, arguing that work on Chicago’s water pipes increased the risk of lead exposure. They cited studies that show that disturbing a lead pipe and then leaving it in the ground can actually raise levels in tap water.
The following year, to protect against these spikes, the city finally began distributing water filters to residents of neighborhoods where public works crews were replacing pipes. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed.
OFFICIAL VIEW OF CHICAGO
The EPA has stated that replacing lead pipes during watermain work is not only safer, but also about 20% cheaper. But Chicago Water Commissioner Andrea Cheng said that’s not true in Chicago. State rules there required expensive construction methods until last year. The city only recently began waiving permit fees that can add thousands of dollars to lead replacement costs, she said.
Cheng said old water pipes can burst and slowing down their replacement by dealing with all the lead pipes would have been irresponsible and could expose people to bacteria. She said Chicago residents face a greater threat of lead paint poisoning and the city is trying to combat that.
The city of Detroit had success when it pressured residents to let road crews enter private property to remove lead pipes. Rules like that are not in place in Chicago.
“Do you know how many people want their garden dug? Cheng said. “Not a lot.”
Since the legislature changed the law, most residents have allowed workers on their property to replace pipes, she said.
Today, Chicago offers a limited, free lead pipe replacement program for low-income households and child care centers and has recently begun replacing lead pipes when they break – a common occurrence in a city with winters. rigorous. But the city says it will take decades to replace them all. Residents will continue to be exposed.
So, three decades after the federal government imposed lead limits on drinking water, the vast majority of lead pipes are still in the ground, not just in Chicago, but across the country.
Marc Edwards, a water treatment specialist at Virginia Tech, said proactive cities that have replaced entire lengths of lead pipes are in better shape.
“You solve the problem once and for all,” he said. “It’s much more cost-effective to do it all at once than just leave this problem up to the owner to forget about it and find out in 30 years that his children have been lead poisoned.
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Fassett reported from Seattle.
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