Day care owners in Illinois now have to test their tap water for lead, which is extra dangerous for tiny children. Some who found it have struggled to fix the problem.
. These businesses risked losing their license if they failed to test for lead and reduce the contamination.
During the first few years of the law’s existence, no money was available to help day cares pay for this new testing requirement. That meant owners had to figure out a way to foot the bill on their own. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services tracks compliance with its lead testing standards, but the Tribune can’t tell exactly how many day cares identified lead since 2017 based on the data the department provided.
For now, the best the Tribune can say is that, between the three data sets, more than 1,400 day care centers identified a water lead level above 2 parts per billion, the threshold where DCFS requires mitigation. “We’re not water treatment experts,” Tarczan said. “We want to succeed as well. We’re not going to not help, but there’s a limitation to what exactly we can guide them to. We can only guide them to other experts.”
Lindsay McCormick of the Environmental Defense Fund said solutions that rely on human behavior — such as manually flushing taps, obeying signs and regularly replacing filters — are not good long-term fixes. She described filters, for example, as a “band-aid solution.” Some day cares have found it difficult to get water lead levels below the 2 parts per billion threshold, even after several rounds of mitigation.
Elevate Energy, the nonprofit working with the Illinois Department of Public Health, has a separate program that provides funds to pay for repairs at Chicago day cares, while Chicago’s Department of Water Management last year announced that it would prioritize lead service line replacements to licensed day care facilities in low-income neighborhoods at no cost.
A facilities room at El Hogar Del Niño, a day care in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood, where the nonprofit group Elevate Energy helped replace a lead service line, a water heater and a boiler.
México Últimas Noticias, México Titulares
Similar News:También puedes leer noticias similares a ésta que hemos recopilado de otras fuentes de noticias.
How to watch ‘Chicago Med, Fire, P.D.’ tonight (5/10/23): FREE live stream, time, channelNew episodes of 'Chicago Med,' 'Chicago Fire' and 'Chicago P.D.' will air on NBC.
Leer más »
Illinois Gov. Pritzker signs law that gives benefits to Chicago first responders disabled by COVIDIllinois Gov. JB Pritzker has signed a law providing full disability benefits to Chicago police officers and firefighters struck by COVID-19 before vaccines were available.
Leer más »
Letter: HB 2789 only serves to persecute 'moral' peopleA Downers Grove letter to the editor: According to its annual report, the University of Illinois at Chicago continues to rank Illinois as the third most corrupt state in the country.
Leer más »
New EPA regulations could force power plants to install new technology or stop using coal and gasIn Illinois, the biggest outlier is a coal-fired plant in southern Illinois owned by five Chicago suburbs and dozens of other municipalities in Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states.
Leer más »
1 killed, 1 critically wounded in Austin shooting: Chicago policeTwo men were hit in a drive-by shooting on Chicago's West Side Tuesday night.
Leer más »