The Chicago Park District may shut down half of its outdoor drinking fountains this season in a move aimed at protecting the public from lead exposure, officials say.
The decision comes after two years of the district grappling with high lead levels in the water of hundreds of its drinking fountains.
The announcement arrives about six weeks before an estimated 40,000 Chicago kids, ages 6 to 12, start park district day camp.
WBEZ learned of the shut-offs through open records requests and an interview this week with Chicago Park District Director of the Environmental Services Dan Cooper.
Flushing worked for most fountains; about 70 percent delivered water below the federal action level when returned to push-button use.
Their lead levels spiked above federal action levels when returned to normal use, prompting the district to run them continuously all season.
The 500 or so that have never registered lead issues will operate normally, but the 750 that have registered detectable levels (some up to 80 times the federal action limit) will either be turned off or left on continuous flow.
“We’ll either run them full time or not at all,” says Park’s Environmental Services Director Cooper.
This year, the park district has already permanently removed more than 100 fountains from district property because of lead issues, Cooper says.
“I’m concerned about public water fountains for the same reason,” she says.