NRDC + Bridges//Puentes: Tell the EPA “We need safe drinking water”

NRDC + Bridges//Puentes: Tell the EPA “We need safe drinking water”

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There is no safe level of lead. And yet, up to 22 million Americans and possibly more drink tap water served by lead pipes. Chicago is the lead pipe capitol of the United States and we have had enough.

Lead harms the developing brain, making it especially dangerous for children and pregnant people. It can also cause fatal heart disease in adults. We all know someone who has been affected by cancers and neurological disorders, and who is to say that lead hasn’t played a part?

NRDC and Bridges are calling on every advocate out there to strengthen the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recently proposed regulations to help get lead out of drinking water.

We need the EPA to finalize strong regulations that ensure replacements of all lead pipes in no more than 10 years, including in disadvantaged communities and areas most impacted by this health crisis. In the current proposal, Chicago is only required to replace 8,000 to 10,000 pipes annually, meaning this problem would not be solved until 2067 or later. This is too long of a timeline, especially for disadvantaged communities like our own, who are already overburdened with silent polluters.

We also must require water utilities to cover the costs, so we’re not putting that financial burden on low-income homeowners, and to protect renters whose landlords are unlikely to pay the cost of lead pipe replacement. Here in Chicago the city mandated the use of lead service lines through 1986, we should not be on the hook for this expense, which will no doubt be unaffordable for too many families.

Join NRDC and Bridges//Puentes: Tell the EPA to finalize strong standards for safe drinking water

Join NRDC and Bridges//Puentes: Tell the EPA to finalize strong standards for safe drinking water

A young girl filling a glass of water from a kitchen faucet.

Brian Maranan Pineda for NRDC

There is no safe level of lead. And yet, up to 22 million Americans and possibly more drink tap water served by lead pipes. Chicago is the lead pipe capitol of the United States and we have had enough.

Lead harms the developing brain, making it especially dangerous for children and pregnant people. It can also cause fatal heart disease in adults. We all know someone who has been affected by cancers and neurological disorders, and who is to say that lead hasn’t played a part?

NRDC and Bridges are calling on every advocate out there to strengthen the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recently proposed regulations to help get lead out of drinking water.

We need the EPA to finalize strong regulations that ensure replacements of all lead pipes in no more than 10 years, including in disadvantaged communities and areas most impacted by this health crisis. In the current proposal, Chicago is only required to replace 8,000 to 10,000 pipes annually, meaning this problem would not be solved until 2067 or later. This is too long of a timeline, especially for disadvantaged communities like our own, who are already overburdened with silent polluters.

We also must require water utilities to cover the costs, so we’re not putting that financial burden on low-income homeowners, and to protect renters whose landlords are unlikely to pay the cost of lead pipe replacement. Here in Chicago the city mandated the use of lead service lines through 1986, we should not be on the hook for this expense, which will no doubt be unaffordable for too many families.