Mayor Lori Lightfoot has accused her predecessor of punting a $10 billion problem and said the “time of reckoning is now” for replacing lead service lines carrying water from street mains to nearly 380,000 Chicago homes.
But the plan she unveiled Thursday is more like dipping your toe in the water than diving right in.
Instead of asking all Chicago homeowners to share the cost, Lightfoot will start small. The city will replace lead service pipes at only 750 homes in impoverished Chicago neighborhoods.
For homeowners willing to hire their own contractors and assume replacement costs themselves, the city will waive up to $3,300 in permit fees, connect the new service line to the water main and install a free water meter when the project is completed. To qualify, it must be a “stand-alone” request not related to a home renovation or expansion that requires a larger water line, officials said.
The so-called “Equity Lead Service Line Replacement Program” covers less than one-thousandth of 1% of the universe of endangered Chicago homes.
“At this rate, it’s gonna take 500 years,” former mayoral challenger Paul Vallas told the Sun-Times.
“It’s a press release without substance. Saying it lacks substance would be complimentary. It tries to create the perception that they’re doing something when they’re not doing anything at all.”
In a press release announcing the program, Lightfoot argued that approach underscores her “equity-forward approach to providing residents the support they need, all while providing a foundation to continuously building on our commitment to addressing this important issue for the long-term.”
The $15 million pilot program will be paid for with federal Community Development Block Grant funds.
To qualify for what the city calls “free, full lead service line replacement,” Chicagoans must: own the homes they live in; have a household income below 80 percent of the area median income, or $72,800 for a family of four; and have “consistent lead concentrations in their drinking water above 15 parts-per-billion.”
Qualifying single-family homes and two-flats without water meters will receive one at the time the service line is replaced.
In an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times last week, Chief Financial Officer Jennie Huang Bennett acknowledged for the first time that Chicago homeowners will ultimately be required to share the cost of replacing lead service lines through yet another increase in their water bills.
Lightfoot’s start-small program makes no mention of that increase at a time when Chicago homeowners are bracing for massive tax increases to erase a 2021 budget shortfall that the mayor now pegs at $1.25 billion.
It simply states that the city has “commissioned a technical report to explore the full spectrum of funding and operations options for lead service line replacement” across the city. Only after those recommendations are released will a “working group comprised of stakeholders, regulators and aldermen” develop a long-term plan.
No city in America has more lead service lines than Chicago. They desperately need to be replaced at a cost that could range from $3,000 to $10,000 for each of the impacted properties.
As a mayoral candidate, Lightfoot accused then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel of engaging in a “cover-up” of what she called a major public health issue.
She argued then that concerned homeowners couldn’t wait for results of a $750,000 study to determine the cost of and potential funding for a plan to replace lead service lines.
“Whatever it takes, this administration has a moral obligation to make this right,” she said then.
Two months after taking office, Lightfoot insisted Chicago’s drinking water was safe. But she also paused meter installation citywide after another round of water tests at metered homes showed more elevated lead levels.
During the campaign, Vallas and Ja’Mal Green warned Chicago could face a water crisis akin to the one in Flint, Michigan unless the city halted main-line construction and started a cost-sharing plan to replace lead service line.
Both candidates proposed expediting distribution of water testing kits and to supply water filtration systems in the short-term at a cost of up to $15 million.
On Thursday, Vallas pushed the plan he unveiled then.
“Do widespread testing. Make it possible for poor families to purchase water filtration systems, because not everybody can run out and buy bottled water. And do a massive lead pipe replacement plan by issuing bonds, amortizing the interest and funding those bonds with money from TIF districts that expire,” Vallas, who served former Mayor Richard M. Daley as city revenue and budget director and Chicago Public Schools CEO.
Vallas said homeowners who can afford to do so need to share the cost of replacing the lead service pipes leading to their homes.
But, he argued, there are ways to do that and ease the burden. Apply a means test and waive either part or all of the cost for the poorest families. For homeowners who can afford it, raise water fees gradually over 10 years. Create an environmental remediation fund seeded with city revenue that can issue grants or subsidize longer-term payment plans.
“There are no safe levels of lead — period,” he said.
