Data helping Hazel Crest, Flossmoor target water issues
Data and technology experts are working with two south suburban towns to identify homes that are likely to be served by pipes with lead that could leak into drinking water.
Studies underway in Flossmoor and Hazel Crest may help create models that could be used to address a public health threat potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of homes throughout Illinois.
“The main problem is that lead, even though it’s been used inwater service lines since Roman times, is a toxic material,” said Justin Keller, an associate with the Chicagobased Metropolitan Planning Council. “It’s poisonous. There is no safe level of exposure.”
A crisis involving lead in drinkingwater focused national attention on the city of Flint, Michigan. Closer to home, lead contamination of the water supply remains an unresolved issue in south suburban University Park after 18 months.
Exposure to lead is potentially harmful to anyone, but children are especially at risk.
“In children, low levels of exposure have been linked to damage to the central and peripheral nervous system, learning disabilities, shorter stature, impaired hearing and impaired formation and function of blood cells,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Congress first passed the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974 and amended it in 1986 to ban the use of lead pipes inwater systems. Pipes made of copper or other materials are commonly used in new construction today. However, pipes with lead continue to serve many older homes.
“Illinois has the most lead service lines of any state,” Keller said.
Lead pipes serve at least 686,000 households throughout the state, and that’s just the ones that are known. The actual number
of underground pipes with lead in them is anybody’s guess.
“Really, the onlyway to knowthe exact location of lead service lines is to do excavation,” Keller said. “You’ve got to dig up the entire village, which is not feasible for most municipalities.”
That’swhy towns are getting technical help from theMetropolitan Planning Council and another Chicago-based nonprofit organization, the Center for NeighborhoodTechnology. Data processing experts use modeling techniques knownas predictive analytics to identify homes with higher probabilities of having lead pipes.
“The idea is to help them identify areas before they start digging,” said PeterHaas, chief research scientist with the Center forNeighborhoodTechnology. “It helps a village focus their resources.”
Information indicating the year in which homes were built is one source of data, he said. Assessment records are another.
“Places with higher property values are less likely to have lead service lines,” Haas said.
Aservice line refers to the portion of thewater system that connects a public main buried under a street to individual homes or other structures. One of the first steps toward developing a plan to eventually replace lead lines is identifying homes that
have them.
Barrington, Downers Grove, Evanston, Naperville, Wheaton and a handful of other communities have completed inventories indicating the likely presence of lead service lines. Flossmoor andHazel Crest are the first municipalities in the south suburbs to undertake the task.
Organizerswant to inform the public about the efforts without causing alarm. “Generally thewater that’s coming out of the pipe is safe and cleanwater but if there’s a lead service line that’s an issue that needs to be dealt with,” Keller said.
Lead service lines can still deliver safe drinking water to residents. Testing can determine whether lead is present inwater. Sometimes, street repairs or otherwork can dislodge solder used to fuse connections, or other factorsmay cause lead frompipes to leak intowater.
“Wewantmunicipalities to be as forthright and transparent as possible,” Keller said.“We don’twant there to be a public health scare. We don’twant people to be terrified of drinking theirwater.”
Homeowners and residentsmay inspect service line connections in their homes if they are concerned about lead. In homes with basements, a section of service linemay be visible as it connects to a water meter or interior pipes. Lead pipes typically are a dull gray and often have a bulge near connections.
The inventories of lead service lines will help local and state officials develop plans to eventually replace them. Some states, such as NewJersey, have passed laws requiring that lead pipes be removed and replaced by a certain deadline. Illinois lawmakers considered a bill earlier this year, but it stalled in committee.
“Our ultimate goal is to produce a how-to guide,” Keller said.“Wewant to develop resources that municipalities throughout the state can use for making a plan of attack for getting that public health risk out of the ground.”
While agencieswork with towns to conduct inventories, the question of howto pay for replacing lead service lines remains unresolved. Cost estimates for suburban neighborhoods range from$3,000 to $6,000 per home, Keller said. Costsmay be higher in places like Chicago, where fiber optic cables or other underground infrastructure may be densely packed alongsidewater lines.
Figuring our away to pay for the preventive replacementworkmay save taxpayers billions of dollars in future costs of providing medical care, remedial educational programs or other services needed due to exposure to lead.
“Because it affects children disproportionately, that’s going to have an impact on the health care system, it’s going to impact schools,” Keller said. “Ifwe can tackle the issue before we have that problem, the cost is going to be cheaper in the long run.”
Plus, the task of replacing lead service lines is going to create a lot of good-paying jobs. IfCongress ever overcomes partisan differences to approve funding to replace aging infrastructure, south suburban communitieswould be wise to have identified shovel-ready projects in need of funding.
“We’re excited about the technical assistancewe’re receiving,” saidDante Sawyer, Hazel Crest village manager. “Maintaining our water systemis very important, andwewant to be ready if any federal or state funding becomes available.”