There are nearly 700,000 lead water lines to homes and businesses across Illinois — more than half in Chicago — that have to be replaced because they are made with brain-damaging lead, government officials warned Thursday.
What’s more, that number could be well over 1 million as the state has identified an additional 820,000 water service lines that are made of “unknown material,” Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Director John Kim said at a hearing in Chicago held by U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth.
