U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth recently announced that the Chicago Department of Water Management will receive a $22,119,933 federal grant to help cover the costs of removing and replacing around 650 lead service lines throughout the Austin community.
In 2021, Illinois passed the Lead Service Line Replacement and Notification Act, which requires municipalities to replace lead service lines, with the deadline based on how many lead service lines a municipality has. For Chicago, which had estimated 412,000 lead service lines, the deadline is set at 2071. While the state set up grants to help cities meet the mandate, it never fully funded it – leading municipalities to look for some combination of state and federal funding sources.
In the past, municipalities only replaced lead pipes as far as the property line; however, the act requires Chicago to replace it all the way up to the building, which further adds to the costs.
According to the senators, more than 3,000 properties throughout Austin had their tap water test higher than 15 ppb (parts per billion). While any amount of lead in the water carries health risks, under federal law, this is when municipalities are required to take active measures to reduce contamination.
A joint investigation by WBEZ, Grist and Inside Climate News found that at least half of all pipes within Austin census tracts are lead pipes that must be replaced. In some central and north Austin census tracts, and Galewood census tracts, 80% to 90% of the pipes need to be replaced.
The senators previously announced over $316 million for clean water funding in Illinois last month, including $295,551,000 for the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to boost Illinois’ Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) and $21,335,000 through EPA’s Emerging Contaminants in Small or Disadvantaged Communities grant program to help address PFAS and other emerging contaminants in Illinois communities. This funding is made possible through clean drinking water provisions Duckworth successfully pushed to be included in the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
In the statements to the media, the senators emphasized that addressing the health risk lead poses is important everywhere.
““Every American – no matter their zip code – deserves to have confidence that the drinking water in their homes and schools won’t make them sick,” Duckworth said. “With Chicago home to more known lead service lines than any other city in the country, this significant investment will go a long way to help the city get rid of lead pipes, clean up our drinking water and protect our children’s health.”
“Lead in our drinking water, at any level, is a threat to our public health, particularly to children,” Durbin said. “The lead pipes in Chicago, the most in any city in the nation, have posed a health risk for far too long. With this major investment, we can continue the critical work of ensuring Chicagoans have access to clean water when they turn on the tap.”
