Illinois will receive $295 million to address lead in drinking water as part of a $921 million regional investment, the federal government has announced. [Chicago Tribune] 

The move is one of many actions under the Federal Lead Action Plan, launched in President Donald Trump’s first term and aligned with his administration’s newer campaign to “Make America Healthy Again.”

Illinois has 677,000 known lead service lines and another 820,000 suspected lines currently connected to the state’s water systems. That’s more than any other state.

Chicago alone has more than 400,000 of the toxic pipes, by far the most of any U.S. city, as clout-heavy unions ensured the plumbing code required lead service lines until Congress banned the practice in 1986.

The funding announcement made on Wednesday — and another one on Thursday for $232 million to monitor bacteria levels at Illinois beaches — comes even as the Trump administration rolls back other clean water protections, including a move last week to reduce limits for PFAS levels in drinking water. Also known as forever chemicals, these can cause reproductive, endocrine and neurodevelopmental diseases in humans, as well as cancer, studies show. 

More>

###