Groups ask EPA to ensure East Chicago has safe water.
Several community groups petitioned the EPA on Thursday to immediately act to protect residents from lead in their drinking water.
According to the petition, the East Chicago Water Department and Indiana Department of Environmental Management have failed to adequately address the problem in the short-term, so the Environmental Protection Agency should use its emergency powers.
Up to 90 percent of East Chicago’s water lines could be lead, so residents should assume they have lead pipes and use a properly certified faucet filter, EPA said.
‘Until the water is safe to drink’ EPA has identified East Chicago as an environmental justice community, in part, because many of its residents are poor, said Anjali Waikar, a staff attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
City, state and federal officials have rightly focused on addressing contamination in the soil of the Superfund site, the petition said.
EPA provided water filters and bottled water to residents at the 43 homes it tested, but no government agency has provided filters or bottled water to other East Chicago water system customers.
EPA has said little to no orthophosphate, a chemical used to prevent lead from leaching into water from lead service lines, was found in the city’s water.
IDEM has confirmed it is working with the city to adjust chemical levels.
Several actions requested In addition to providing filters or bottled water, the petition asks EPA to immediately conduct citywide testing of drinking water, implement a program to ensure filters are properly installed and maintained, ensure the city’s compliance with the federal Lead and Copper Rule, use its authority to review the city’s corrosion control requirements, replace faucets in residents’ homes as needed, expand blood testing of children under age 7 who are enrolled in Medicaid or are otherwise at-risk, and order any other necessary relief.

The journey of our water from source to tap is long, and not one we think much about.
By conserving these lands, we can better protect our water and generate additional benefits for people and nature.
Today, approximately 40 percent of the land in urban source watersheds of the world’s largest cities show high to moderate levels of degradation.
nature.org/beyondthesource A new report released by The Nature Conservancy, Beyond the Source: The environmental, economic and community benefits of source water protection, shows that forest protection, reforestation, and the use of cover crops can help four out of five of the 4,000 cities analyzed reduce sediment and nutrient pollution in waterways by a meaningful amount.
For one in six cities analyzed in the report, the cost of implementing source water protection activities could be recouped through savings in annual water treatment costs alone.
nature.org/beyondthesource For example, in Nairobi, Kenya, high sediment levels in the Tana River from agricultural run-off and development in the mountains catalyzed the development of Africa’s first water fund.
The fund also has downstream projected benefits including improved water yields and reduced sediment in the river.
During a recent trip to Kenya, the message from water fund investors and participants was clear: it’s in their best interest to make this work.
As cities and populations grow, and climate change adds undue pressure on vulnerable freshwater systems, maintaining healthy lands around our water sources will be increasingly vital to the future of our water security.
By investing in nature, we also invest in our future.