Chicago Water Meter Lead
To have a complete understanding of what it takes to protect water quality the city of chicago commissioned chicago s water quality study in 2016 to investigate the possible impact on drinking water of installing water mains or water meters.
Chicago water meter lead. Of the 510 homes that were tested before and after the installation of water meters roughly 36 or 7 1 of them showed levels of lead in excess of federal guidelines for drinking water after getting metered. This is the biggest study of its kind ever conducted. Water meter questions are answered and water meters requested. The department of water management is responsible for delivering nearly 1 billion gallons of fresh pure water to the residents of chicago and 125 suburban communities.
Metersave is a program in chicago allowing customers with assessed water accounts to have a water meter installed in there single family homes or two flats. Customers will only be charged for the water used and the total annual water bills are guaranteed not to be any higher that the normal assessed rate for seven years. Lightfoot announced tuesday that city officials will halt. But the temporary hold.
About 7 saw lead levels spike higher than 15 parts per billion three. Of 510 homes tested since 2017 22 had elevated lead levels in tap water after a meter installation city official says. The results of the lead sampling study conducted in chicago in single family homes with lead service lines showed that it could take 3 minutes of running the water to significantly reduce lead levels and it is not possible to clear all of the lead from the drinking water using flushing. Chicago s water meter installation program is on an indefinite hold after new data showed an increased level of lead in some metered homes.
Chicago wls chicago mayor lori lightfoot has suspended a water meter installation program that s been tied to elevated lead levels. Chicago the last big american city to require water pipes made of brain damaging lead is now the last one beginning to rip toxic pipes out of the ground.