The city plans to finish replacing lead pipes by 2076, conducting replacements at a rate of 8,300 per year for 50 years. That's 30 years past the EPA's deadline. At this pace, kids born today will be middle-aged before Chicago's water is safe. 5/n
In the meantime, nearly 70% of Chicago kids under 6 live in homes with detectable lead in their tap water. As readers probably know, there's no safe level of lead exposure: It causes developmental delays, learning difficulties, and permanent health problems. 6/n
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And while Chicago is supposed to notify 900,000 at-risk households about their lead pipes, as of July, they'd only sent out 62,000 letters. More than 90% of residents with dangerous pipes still don't know they're at risk. That's one reason we built our lookup tool. 7/n
