Unsafe Lead Contamination Found In Chicago Drinking Water
Recent tests for thousands of consumers in Chicago found that 5% of them were being served with drinking water that contained exceedingly high levels of lead contamination.
“One in 20 tap water tests performed for thousands of Chicago residents found lead, a neurotoxin, at or above US government limits, according to a Guardian analysis of a City of Chicago data trove,” The Guardian reported. “This means that out of the 24,000 tests, approximately 1,000 homes had lead exceeding federal standards.”
Experts fear that the problem could be even more widespread than the data suggests, as there are hundreds of thousands of lead drinking water pipes serving residents in the city, and most were not tested.
Recognizing that lead-based drinking water infrastructure is a widespread and dangerous problem across the U.S., the Biden administration has recently earmarked $50 billion to help replace it. But many water systems are finding that identification and replacement of these lead drinking water lines may be more challenging than they hoped.
“The situation in Chicago is emblematic of an immense national issue,” according to The Guardian. “Although the Flint crisis rang alarm bells across the country, estimates say there are some 10m lead pipes still serving US homes — meaning these homes could potentially have unsafe tap water.”
Another point of contention is determining the exact levels that constitute “unsafe” lead contamination. The U.S. EPA maintains an “action level” of 15 parts per billion for the contaminant, but many health advocates argue this is not strict enough.
Chicago’s water authority pushed back on concerns about the findings, noting that the testing method used would likely yield higher results for the presence of lead.
“A spokesperson for the Chicago department of water management said … the city’s testing method for lead involves deliberately letting the water stand for several hours in the pipe, and is therefore an overestimation,” per The Guardian. “The city also encourages residents with lead lines to flush their water for five minutes every day before consuming.”
Most can agree that the country’s lead contamination problems will only truly be solved once all outdated infrastructure is replaced. But as Chicago’s data now demonstrate, that solution may still be a far way off.
“Even in 2020, Chicago officials admitted that replacing (lead service lines) would take a long time, decades even,” Gizmodo reported. “Officials say the extended timelines is due to the sheer number of lead lines and the billions of dollars needed to deal with the problem.”
To read more about how utilities manage the infrastructure that delivers drinking water, visit Water Online’s Drinking Water Distribution Solutions Center.