When Carla Morgan worked for the city of East Chicago, the Environmental Protection Agency discovered the West Calumet Housing Complex had the highest level of lead ever discovered in a residential area in 2016.
The 346-unit public housing complex was built in 1972 atop land that was home to a former lead smelter dating back to 1906 and adjacent to the USS Lead Superfund site.
Morgan was at the center of fighting for the city and against lead contamination, she said. Now, as corporation counsel for the city of Gary, she wants residents to understand new lead pipe regulations are important.
An old lead pipe on the ground where a construction crew is replacing it with a copper pipe in Chicago. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
“I’m really glad the Biden administration has passed these rules and enforcement,” said Morgan, corporation counsel for the city of Gary. “Lead is terrible for intellectual development. It lowers IQ and increases criminality. Cancers, hypertension and all sorts of medical problems can be linked to lead exposure.”
On Oct. 8, the Biden-Harris Administration issued a final rule requiring drink water systems nationwide to identify and replace lead pipes within 10 years, according to the EPA.
The administration’s decision came a decade after the Flint, Michigan, water crisis, which was a public health crisis that exposed the city’s residents to dangerous levels of lead and outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease. The disease is a severe form of pneumonia and is caught through inhaling bacteria from water or soil. Symptoms include headache, muscle aches, fever and shortness of breath, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Crew members begin the April 2018 demolition of the West Calumet Housing Complex in East Chicago, which was contaminated with lead and arsenic from an old smelter property it was built atop and an adjacent U.S.S. Lead Superfund site.
The EPA first announced the proposed Lead and Copper Rule Improvements on Nov. 23, 2023. The proposal includes achieving 100% lead pipe replacement within 10 years, locating legacy lead pipes and strengthening protections to reduce exposure.
The EPA will also provide $2.6 billion in drinking water infrastructure funding.
Even with the EPA’s money, Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott has concerns about funding to replace the city’s lead pipes.
McDermott estimates that it will cost about $600 million for the city to replace its lead pipes. Of the 25,000 houses in Hammond, he said about 17,000 have lead service lines.
About 9.2 million lead service lines bring water to properties throughout the United States, according to the EPA.
Two plastic swans help hold up a sign that reads: “Do not play in the dirt or around the mulch” at a housing unit at the West Calumet Housing Complex in East Chicago in 2016. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)
“When I heard the president say that, I thought that it’s coming from a good place, but until they start talking about how we’re going to pay for this, nothing’s really going to happen,” McDermott said. “When you think about cities like Chicago, and the magnitude of the problem and the lead lines in Chicago, I imagine it’ll cost about $10 billion.”
For McDermott, “there’s no doubt” that funding the replacement of lead service lines will impact taxpayers.
He also said the city is replacing some lead lines this year, but if Hammond stays at its pace, it could take 30 years to finish the job.
Although McDermott doesn’t have a lead service line on his home, he said he wouldn’t worry if he did have one. Hammond properties get their water from Lake Michigan, which McDermott called a stable source of water.
In Flint, Michigan, service lines had issues when they switched their water source from Detroit’s system to the Flint River. The switch was corrosive and “ate away at corrosive membranes” in service lines, McDermott said.
“I’m aware of the magnitude of the problem in the city and across the county in general,” he said. “But until they start talking about how they’re going to pay for it, there’s not going to be much done.”
Gary’s water utility services are privatized, so Morgan said Indiana American Water will notify residents about whether they have lead service lines. The company hasn’t released the number of residents affected, but Morgan estimates that the majority of the city’s housing might be affected.
“It’s going to be somewhere near 80% of our housing stock,” she said. “That’s the same number across the country. It’s not unique to Gary.”
Older houses are more likely to have lead service lines, Morgan said.
If residents learn they have a lead service line, they should request a lead test kit from Indiana American Water. Morgan also suggests that if people are concerned about lead, before they drink water in the morning, let the water run for several minutes.
“We’re collecting data and seeing how we can best help our residents,” Morgan said. “We’ll have more information for everyone as soon as we get the status from Indiana American Water.”
For a lead service line to be replaced, it costs from $5,000 to $10,000 depending on a line’s length, said Isaac Pellerin, vice president of marketing for 120Water.
The company offers digital water solutions and serves governments, facilities, public water systems and engineering firms, according to its website.
“A lot of places we’re working with are trying to get their hands on data so that they can apply for the funds to do that replacement and mitigate those costs to residents,” Pellerin said.
120Water, a Zionsville-based company, works with 8,000 communities nationwide, including Munster and Valparaiso in Northwest Indiana. The company tracks millions of service lines, Pellerin said, and about 2% are lead and 37% are unknown.
“If it’s one of those categories, that can be alarming news to someone,” Pellerin said. “But it also gives us an opportunity to say, ‘Go to our website, fill out this form and give us permission to do an investigation.’”
The company has helped communities inventory their lead pipes before the Oct. 16 deadline.
The Lead and Copper Rule Revisions require communities to inventory lead service lines and report that information, according to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. 120Water worked with IDEM and the Indiana Finance Authority to finalize a service line inventory spreadsheet, which communities could use to do their inventory.
Additional provisions of the Lead and Copper Rule Revisions will take place in 2025, according to IDEM. Those provisions include increased lead testing at schools and childcare facilities connected to public water systems, annual communication to homes connected to lead service lines and requirements to remove those lines.
Residents who have lead service lines will receive communication from their community about what’s next.
“In places like Munster, they’ll be sending out postcards or letters, notifying folks how the process went,” Pellerin said. “They’ll receive some short-term remediation, like a pitcher filter, until their home with a lead line can get prioritized for replacement.”
Patricia Abbott, controller and interim town manager for Munster, said she is unsure how many lead pipes are in the community. The town will alert residents who have unknown service line material within 30 days after the compliance deadline.
It’s important for residents not to worry if they receive a letter, Abbott said.
“We’re just one of the communities going through this,” she added. “Don’t panic. It’s something we’re working on, and we’re figuring out what the guidelines and requirements are.”
Matt Zurbriggen, Valparaiso’s deputy city services director, also said residents don’t need to worry if they receive a letter.
Valparaiso’s been testing lead service lines since the early 1980s, Zurbriggen said, and the levels have historically been low. The city has never had to reach out to residents about lead levels, and Valparaiso has about 500 lead service lines at this point.
Zurbriggen predicts that Valparaiso will have to reach out to about 600 residents about needing a lead service line replaced.
“It’s a very small percentage,” he said, “which I think is very good.”
Valparaiso residents had the opportunity to self report their lines or schedule an appointment with city staff.
“We’ve done our best to inform the public,” Zurbriggen said. “We would have door knockers going around and basically asking if they could come in and do the self report and help us out.”
Zurbriggen hoped residents would be more involved with the process, but he’s seen almost no complaints or issues. He hopes that more will participate throughout the next few years.
“We’ve always tried to be proactive when it comes to lead lines,” Zurbriggen said. “We’ve historically removed any services when we can, and if there’s any infrastructure issues, we want to stay proactive.”
