EPA: East Chicago Residents Should Filter Water
EAST CHICAGO, Ind. (AP) — Federal officials say all East Chicago residents should assume they have lead water lines and use a properly certified filter.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientist Miguel Del Toral repeated the recommendation Friday after initially making it last month while responding to questions from residents at an open house for the USS Lead Superfund site in the city’s Calumet neighborhood.
Officials say it’s possible up to 90 percent of homes in East Chicago have lead water lines.
The EPA tested drinking water at more than 40 homes at the site, The (Northwest Indiana) Times (http://bit.ly/2kdIur2 ) reported. The agency found nearly 20 of the homes had lead levels above the action level of 15 parts per billion.
EPA officials said the agency views the sampling to represent the entire water system. No further testing is planned.
Lead poses a health risk, particularly for pregnant women and young children. Even at low levels, it can cause learning problems and irreversible behavior.
East Chicago has about 29,000 residents, including about 4,000 who lived in the two census tracts encompassed by the Superfund site in 2010. More than half of the 1,000 people living in the West Calumet Housing Complex have moved since the city issued a relocation order last summer.
Residents should be asking the officials they pay for water service about actions they’re taking, said Mark Templeton, an attorney at Abrams Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School.
“The laws are on the books to protect people’s health today, and if there are legacy issues, then those legacy issues need to be dealt with now to protect public health and the environment,” said Templeton, one of several attorneys working pro bono on behalf of residents. “There are also choices people are making today regarding corrosion control for the entire system.”
Related News
From Archive
- PHMSA warns of heat risks in aging plastic gas distribution pipelines following deadly Pennsylvania explosion
- OSHA seeks $1.2 million fine after fatal trench collapse in Connecticut
- Phase 1 Alaska LNG pipeline advances with construction awards, pipe supply agreements
- OSHA issues 16 citations following fatal sewer confined space incident
- Gateway Tunnel construction faces shutdown next week as Trump withholds federal funding
- T-Mobile to expand fiber broadband infrastructure footprint with $4.9 billion Metronet acquisition
- First tunnel boring machines complete testing for Hudson Tunnel Project
- NWPX grows water infrastructure portfolio with Colorado precast facility
- Cityside launches $100 million fiber build in Corona, Calif.
- FiberLight to build 1,400-mile West Texas dark fiber network in $350 million expansion
Comments