The only thing worse than denying science and inflicting damage on children through closed schools has been ignoring science and doing next to nothing to remove lead from drinking water.
Brain damaging lead is the real pandemic inflicting incalculable damage on successive generations of children. For years, reporters such as Michael Hawthorne of the Tribune (among others, including me) sounded the alarm about lead in our drinking water that elected and appointed officials paid little more than lip service.
At last count only 20 of the 400,000 Chicago lead service lines were replaced and a new state unfunded mandate to replace lead pipes gives municipalities and counties 50 years to comply. This of course means five more decades of lead poisoning of children.
Studies report lead exposure causes what psychologists call “externalizing behavior problems” such as aggressiveness and bullying, which may lead to truancy and violence as children get older. There is an astonishing body of evidence that shows higher childhood blood lead levels are consistently associated with higher adult arrest rates for violent crimes.
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Recent studies tied the reduction of lead exposure in gasoline (as a result of tougher emissions standards) and the replacement of leaded gasoline with the decline in violent crime in the ’90s. Many of the challenges chronically faced by low-income communities in Chicago — from underachievement in school, poor mental and physical health to higher rates of violent crime — may be the result of generations of lead contamination.
The simplest pathway to quickly protect children while embarking on an accelerated campaign to replace lead service lines is to aggressively provide a water filtration system to any and all homes, apartment buildings, schools, child care facilities and restaurants that need one. Chicago’s Department of Water Management should select vendors with proven filtration systems, pre-qualifying providers, controlling costs through strategic sourcing. For the lead pandemic, think of water filtration systems as the equivalent to N95 surgical masks for COVID-19.
The filtration campaign should include a public education component. Topics can include the risks of lead in drinking water and what steps can be taken to minimize risks, with schools taking a proactive role. This would include free and timely testing services for all schools, early childhood centers, other public buildings and any resident or business that requests a test.
If the city and state government had addressed the lead pandemic with even half the attention and effort with which they confronted COVID-19, who knows how much better the health and wellness outcomes of so many Chicagoans might be. While the city has irresponsibly squandered most of its federal American Rescue Plan Act funds, schools have not.
CPS could immediately and affordably use ARPA funds to subsidize home water filtration devices needed to ensure that children and their families have access to lead-free water. Think of the benefits to schools and society in general if fewer children struggled with lead-related special needs, health complications or proclivity toward violence.
Long term, the city can raise money needed for lead pipe replacement by issuing tax increment financing “Revenue Anticipation Bonds.” These can be financed with a portion of future revenues from expiring TIFs to provide funding for means-tested grants and loans to accelerate service line replacements. This would not require a tax increase or a further diversion of existing city revenues.
While $1.7 billion in federal funds is headed to Illinois for lead pipe replacement, it will fall far short of what the city and Illinois need. The city would also not have to wait for federal funds that are available or for the state to approve its own funding to pursue an aggressive water service line replacement program.
Lead in Chicago’s drinking water is a crisis that must be addressed with equal (if not more) urgency than was given to the COVID-19 pandemic. Newark, New Jersey, tackled its lead service lines in two years, quickly making available and installing water filtration systems in every home and school in the interim before replacements were completed. Flint, Michigan, whose lead water contamination became a national scandal in 2014, is close to completing its lead service line replacement.
Chicago’s is a crisis that has been well-known for decades. Generations of children have been damaged by the historic failure to remove lead from drinking water. Lead’s fingerprints are on many of the immense challenges that are prevalent in Chicago’s under-resourced communities. It’s past time for the mayor and City Council to take action and remove this stain once and for all.
Paul Vallas served as budget director for the city of Chicago and as CEO of Chicago Public Schools.
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