The Illinois State Bar Association Real Property Law Section suggest that attorneys remind their clients who now own or who are purchasing a Chicago home or two-flat that they may be able to apply to have the lead service lines (water pipes) removed from their property for free.
In May 2022, WTTW reported that “lead service lines connect more Chicago homes to water mains than in any other American city, in large part because officials required that lead pipes be used to funnel water to single-family homes and small apartment buildings for nearly a century.”
Lead piping is a significant concern for homeowners, because as federal officials report, there is no safe level of lead in drinking water. Lead is a neurotoxin. It has harmful effects, especially for children and pregnant women.
Mayor Lightfoot rolled out a September 2020 plan to start replacing lead service lines, using federal grant money to remove lead service lines in homes owned by low- and moderate-income Chicagoans. Lightfoot said that would be enough money to replace 650 lead service lines. Originally, eligibility was limited to households that earned less than 80% of the area’s median income and had tap water in their single-family home or two-flat with more than 15 parts per billion of lead. The Chicago program was expanded in July 2021, to include any household with children younger than 18 that earned less than less than 80% of the area’s median income, regardless of whether their home had an elevated level of lead in its drinking water.
Chicago officials have received at least 886 applications for the program, but as of the WTTW May 2022 reporting only 262 applications were approved, and recently WTTW reported that only a little more than 150 homes had the lead service pipes removed/replaced.
If you are interested in applying for program benefits, start here:
https://www.leadsafechicago.org/lead-service-line-replacement
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