Chicago’s Tap Water Contaminated With Lead, Analysis Finds

One in 20 tap water tests in Chicago have found lead levels at or above U.S. government limits, according to an analysis of city’s water data conducted by the Guardian . The levels were about a third more lead than allowed in bottled water, according to the Guardian.

The analysis found that 1,000 households out of the 24,000 tests had lead levels well above the country’s safety standards. One household in particular, in the south of Chicago, had levels at 1,100 parts per billion (ppb). The limit proposed by the EPA is only 15 ppb . “EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) agree that there is no known safe level of lead in a child’s blood,” the agency wrote in an online water safety guide.

Lead is a dangerous neurotoxin, and even low levels of exposure are cause for concern. There are serious consequences to exposure, and it’s especially harmful to infants and children. It damages the development of the brain and central nervous system, and long-term exposure can result in “intellectual disability and behavioral disorders,” according to the World Health Organization . Despite this knowledge, the city has been slow to get rid of the source of the lead, which are the almost half a million lead lines that run throughout Chicago.

As of this month, under 0.5% of the more than 400,000 lead service lines in the city have been replaced, WTTW Chicago reported . This is more than two years after Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a plan to replace them, according to WTTW Chicago. But even in 2020, Chicago officials admitted that replacing them in the lead lines would take a long time, decades even . Officials say the extended timeline is due to the sheer number of lead lines and the billions of dollars needed to deal with the problem.

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