WBEZ Chicago Article on Lead Pipe Locations Cites MPC Analysis
Photo: Anthony Vazquez/Chicago Sun-Times
Lead pipe problem worst in Chicago’s majority Black and Latino neighborhoods
Aug 28, 2025
By Keerti Gopal | Inside Climate News, Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco | WBEZ, Amy Qin | WBEZ, Clayton Aldern and Peter Aldhous
In this recent article, WBEZ, Grist, and Inside Climate News analyzed city data obtained through a public records request, which allows Chicago’s residents to see where lead pipes are most prevalent in the city and how those locations intersect with poverty and race. The analysis reveals that majority Black and Latinx neighborhoods bear the biggest burden.
Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) analyzed data from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency in 2020, which was cited in support of the article findings. MPC analysis revealed that nearly two-thirds of Black and Latinx residents live in municipalities that contain 94% of the state’s known lead service lines, compared with less than one-third of white Illinoisans.
MPC strives to create environmentally responsible communities, working with a broad-based group of partners across Illinois to identify a feasible and equitable plan, timeline, and funding for Illinois water utilities to identify and replace all lead service lines in order to reach a statewide solution to lead. Research and analysis along the way has brought to light the environmental injustice of lead service line distribution in Illinois.