Christian leaders call out Chicago's toxic lead pipe problem

EarthBeat Weekly
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February 6, 2026

Troy Hernandez, an environmental justice activist, shows a piece of lead pipe obtained from his residence during his home renovation, April 9, 2021, in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood. (AP/Shafkat Anowar)

No state in the country has more lead pipes in service than Illinois. That large presence of toxic infrastructure in the Land of Lincoln recently compelled a coalition of Chicago Christian leaders to call for action to swiftly address this danger to public health.

Ecumenism Metro Chicago, comprising 14 Christian denominations in the Windy City, called on federal and state lawmakers to "make every effort to replace all the lead water pipes in Illinois as quickly as possible," as I reported today at EarthBeat.

The letter was issued Jan. 24 during an ecumenical prayer service at St. Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Apostolic Church in Chicago as part of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The Christian leaders, which includes the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, also urged the Trump administration to reenter the Paris Agreement on climate change, from which the president has withdrawn the country for a second time.

"In the words of our late Holy Father Francis, we must see that in creation 'Everything is connected' if we are to effectively 'listen both to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor,' " Auxiliary Bishop Mark Bartosic, citing Pope Francis' 2015 encyclical "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home," said in a statement. "Things go very wrong when we overlook essential points of connection between us."

In Laudato Si', Francis wrote that "access to safe drinkable water is a basic and universal human right, since it is essential to human survival and, as such, is a condition for the exercise of other human rights."

Drinking water is one of the main sources of lead exposure in the U.S. today, with Illinois alone estimated to have more than 1 million lead service lines, the highest in the nation, according to a 2023 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report.

Lead is a heavy metal and a neurotoxin. There is no safe level of exposure to lead, which when ingested can cause serious damage for people at all ages but especially children, said Dr. Philip Landrigan, director of the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good at Boston College whose research on lead poisoning in the 1970s helped spur federal bans of lead in paint and gasoline.

"The reason infants in the womb and young children are so vulnerable to lead is that their brains are still developing," Landrigan, a pediatrician and epidemiologist, told me. "Brain development is an extremely delicate, fragile process [that is] easily disrupted."

While the bans of lead-based paint and gasoline have led to a 95% drop in childhood lead poisoning, the metal remains a danger through old housing where lead paint is still present, and through drinking water serviced with lead pipes. In both cases, economically poor families and minority communities in the U.S. are disproportionately at risk.

That scenario is on display in Chicago.

What else is new on EarthBeat:

At Notre Dame, student-built ice chapel draws 2,000 to snowy outdoor Mass

by Brian Roewe

Some 2,000 members of the Notre Dame community gathered in subfreezing temperatures to celebrate a candlelit Mass at St. Olaf Chapel, a student-constructed fleeting house of worship made from snow, ice and faith.

What's happening in other climate news:

Climate change is making the Winter Olympics harder to host —Janice Kai Chen, N. Kirkpatrick and Júlia Ledur for the Washington Post

Fate of Colorado River hangs in balance as political battle brews —Joshua Partlow for the Washington Post

Why companies are phasing out these super-pollutants despite Trump —Nicolás Rivero for the Washington Post

Good news: We saved the bees. Bad news: We saved the wrong ones. —Dana Milbank for the Washington Post

How a cockatiel named Koco inspired a conservation movement —Ruby Mellen for the Washington Post

How bad is your stove for your health? Look it up. —Daniel Wolfe and Frank Hulley-Jones for the Washington Post

Washington Post gutting its climate team —Sammy Roth for Climate Colored Goggles

Final Beat:

The opening ceremonies of the 25th Winter Olympics take place on Friday in Milan amid the majestic Italian Alps.

As you may guess, there's a climate angle to the winter edition of the world's premier exhibition of athletics excellence.

The article above from the Washington Post provides an interactive look at the future of the Winter Olympics in a warming world. The compelling graphics are based on a 2024 study commissioned by the International Olympic Committee that analyzed 93 global regions on their climate reliability for hosting by 2050 and beyond.

"If global emissions and Games continue as they are, there will be just 52 locations that remain climate-reliable by the 2050s, and 46 by the 2080s," the Post article reports of the study's conclusions.

It's easy to see how rising temperatures will have an impact on winter sports. Hotter temperatures mean less precipitation falling as snow. But it's not just the quantity, as Kiley Price reports for Inside Climate News, but the quality of snow that's put in jeopardy — an important element for high-level competition where races are often decided by less than a second.

The same authors of the 2024 study in the past week issued a follow-up report examining ways to make the Winter Olympics more resilient on a warming planet. One key, as both articles highlight, is not so much where to host but when.

Something to keep in mind as you watch skiers like the incredible Mikaela Shiffrin fly down the Italian mountainsides in the coming weeks.

As always, thanks for reading EarthBeat.

Brian Roewe
Environment Correspondent
National Catholic Reporter
broewe@ncronline.org