Illinois Passes Landmark Legislation to Replace Lead Pipes

The Chicago Department of Water Management crews install the main water line. Under the new law, water systems must replace the entire lead supply line at the time the water line is replaced.

Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune / Tribune News Service via Getty Images

After years of advocacy led by a diverse group of community advocates, Illinois lawmakers passed the Lead Service Line Replacement and Notification Act – a law requiring the replacement of all lead service lines in the state.

The passage of this bill will propel Illinois to the forefront of states taking meaningful steps to address the problem of lead in drinking water. Illinois joins neighboring Michigan, which revised its federal Lead & Copper Rule in 2018, as one of only two states in the country to require full lead line replacement. The bill to be signed by Governor JB Pritzker contains the following key elements:

  • Requires full replacement of the lead service line of all water systems within a required time frame based on the number of leading utilities in their system;
  • Prohibits the partial exchange of lead service lines: the dangerous practice of only removing the section from the water main to the property line. This leads to an interruption of the remaining part of the supply line and can lead to significantly increased lead contamination in drinking water.
  • Requires that water systems submit an initial Material inventory of the service line to the state by April 15, 2023 and a final full inventory by April 15, 2024;
  • Requires that water systems submit an initial Replacement plan for the management of the service line to the state by April 15, 2024 and an updated plan every April 15 for review by the state until a final overall plan is submitted by April 15, 2027;
  • Creates the lead service line replacement fund which is used solely to fund the work of water systems to identify and replace lead supply lines
  • Water systems are needed to Identify and replace lead service lines during water line replacement from January 1, 2022;
  • Creates the Lead Service Line Replacement Advisory Board: a cross-sector interest body that advises the state on best practices in the exchange of lead service lines and the implementation and integration of the state’s goals for the exchange of lead service lines
  • Establish a nationwide policy and program to support low-income water that all low-income Illinois residents are entitled to financial assistance to ensure access to water.

As the state with the largest number of leaded utilities in the country, estimated between 700,000 and 1.4 million, the public health threat posed by this outdated leaded drinking water infrastructure in Illinois is greater than in any other state in the United States due to the high number of lead lines across the state essentially every Illinois man is at risk of exposure to lead-contaminated drinking water. However, the data shows that blacks and Latinx Illinois are twice as likely to live in lead-line communities than white residents, making the need to address this environmental injustice even more urgent for the historically most marginalized and vulnerable populations.

However, community advocates and sponsors in the Illinois Legislature saw this threat as a significant opportunity for Illinois to take national leadership in solving this toxic infrastructure problem. And this tour begins now by embarking on the long overdue process of getting those lead pipes out of the ground and getting them to where they belong: in the history books.

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