SPRINGFIELD —Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Acting Director John J. Kim today announced the launch of an online tool to assist residents in identifying the number of Lead service lines within their community water systems. The tool allows residents to search for their water system and download a report detailing the types of materials that make up the local water distribution system. The Service Line Material Inventory Reports table can be found at https://www2.illinois.gov/epa/topics/drinking-water/public-water-users/Pages/lead-service-line-information.aspx. All reported data submitted for 2017 is now available online and Community Water Systems have until April 15, 2019 to submit calendar year 2018 data.
“This tool has been developed to provide added transparency to residents by identifying the make-up of public water distribution systems in Illinois,” said Illinois EPA Acting Director John J. Kim. “As inventories are completed by community water systems, we anticipate this tool will not only be used by residents but also by public health officials as they investigate possible sources of lead exposure in children with elevated blood lead levels.”
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Based on preliminary data reported by 1,659 of the 1,743 community water systems in Illinois for 2017, the Agency estimates that Illinois has 3,736,666 total water service lines. Of those, 414,895 are made of Lead; 318,653 are Copper (potentially with Lead solder); 67,273 are Galvanized; 1,222,133 are Copper without Lead solder; and 208,964 are Plastic. The remaining 1,504,748 service lines are currently unknown material, emphasizing the need for complete distribution system material inventories.
The Illinois Environmental Protection Act was amended in 2017 by Public Act 99-0922 to require annual service line material inventories, which provides details on each water distribution system in Illinois. Specifically, the law requires each community water system to submit information to the Illinois EPA identifying: (1) the total number of service lines within or connected to the distribution system, including privately owned service lines; (2) the number of all known lead service lines within or connected to the distribution system, including privately owned lead service lines; and (3) the number of lead service lines that were added to the inventory after the previous year’s submission. Water systems will continue to submit information on an annual basis until the inventory is complete.
The Environmental Defense Fund has recognized Illinois as one of only 16 states that have proactively developed policies related to lead service line replacement. Of those 16 states, Illinois is one of just four that has a mandatory program to develop a statewide inventory of water distribution systems.
