Lead removal experts have long believed Illinois had the nation’s biggest network of lead water lines. But last month an Environmental Protection Agency report suggested that Florida’s inventory of lead lines (an estimated 1.16 million) exceeds our 1.04 million lines.
Illinois Environmental Council’s Iyana Simba and others find that ranking dubious. Simba tells Axios there are hundreds of thousands of lines categorized as “unknown,” many of which are probably made of lead.
This inventory matters, because it now dictates the state’s share of more than $3 billion in federal money for removal. “If they were properly counted, I think Illinois would, sadly, be at the top,” Simba says.
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