Despite Mandate, Chicago Lead Pipe Replacement Is 50 Years Away
New Environmental Protection Agency rules are supposed to make US water lead-free. But Chicago, with the greatest lead pipe burden, is emblematic of the tremendous hurdles ahead.
A crew replaces lead pipes in a Chicago home.
Photographer: Vanessa Bly for NRDC
When Vanessa Bly spent a day watching a lead service line get replaced outside a home in the Southeast Side of Chicago, she got a sobering look at the city’s sluggish approach to one of the nation’s most pressing environmental issues.
“There was so much machinery. There were so many people coming in and out for this one house,” she said. “No one can drive through the block the entire day.” said Bly, co-founder of the community organization Bridges//Puentes Justice Collective of the Southeast. She wondered why, for all the disruption and investment, the city didn’t also replace pipes in other homes on that block.