El Martes, 27 de Agosto 2019, Miembros de Ixchel y residentes de Berwyn y Cicero realizaron una conferencia de prensa afuera de la alcadia en Berwyn para exigir que el alcalde tome accion para proveer agua libre de plomo para residentes de Berwyn.On… — El Martes, 27 de Agosto 2019, Miembros de Ixchel y residentes de Berwyn y Cicero realizaron una conferencia de prensa afuera de la alcadia en Berwyn para exigir que el alcalde tome accion para proveer agua libre de plomo para residentes de Berwyn.
On Tuesday, August 27th, 2019, Ixchel and residents held a press conference outside the Berwyn City Hall building to demand that the Mayor of Berwyn take action to provide clean water without lead to Berwyn residents. (Photo by April Alonso)

This Op-Ed was written by members of Ixchel, a community organization based in Cicero. The letter was made public at a press conference held at the Berwyn City Hall on Tuesday, April 27, 2019.

We, members of Ixchel, write to address recent statements made by representatives of the Town of Cicero and the City of Berwyn claiming that our water has been safe for our communities to drink. Unfortunately, there have been active efforts made to dispel or ignore any research on lead levels in drinking water in Berwyn and Cicero; this is counterproductive and harmful to our communities. As residents of Berwyn and Cicero who entrust our local government to ensure public health and safety, we believe there should be transparency in informing residents of the levels of lead in our drinking water.

The scientific consensus is that there is absolutely no safe level of exposure to lead, especially during the prenatal period and childhood. Even low levels of exposure to lead are associated with permanent damage to a child’s developing brain and nervous system, leading to lower IQ scores and academic performance, inattention, impulsivity, aggression, and hyperactivity. In otherwise healthy women, exposure to lead is associated with miscarriages. Lead exposure also puts people at risk for adverse cardiovascular and kidney effects, cognitive dysfunction, and elevated blood pressure. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that school water fountains should not exceed lead levels of 1 part per billion (ppb), and the World Health Organization suggests an international guideline of 10 ppb of lead in drinking water, while emphasizing that this standard is not necessarily health-protective.

Despite the scientific consensus, Cicero and Berwyn officials stress that the water is “safe to drink” because it meets the 15-ppb action level at 90th percentile of the households tested, the standard set forth by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This lead federal action level of 15 ppb is not a safety indicator against the previously mentioned negative health impacts. If the water systems meets the action level standard, that simply means that less than 10 percent of all lead sampling results exceed 15 ppb, and they, therefore, are not required by federal law to take certain actions, such as replacing lead service lines.

When town officials claim that our water is safe, they fail to mention that their testing yielded detectable levels of lead in the majority of residences, sometimes above 15 ppb. They also fail to mention the results of sequential sampling, or lead testing performed on water in 10 to 15 bottles collected back-to-back that the Illinois EPA requested the Town and City to perform. Cicero’s sampling from the 3rd quarter of 2018 shows lead levels increasing after the first bottle of water tested, with all 5 sites showing lead levels above 5 ppb in at least one bottle, and 3 out of 5 sites showing lead levels above 15 ppb in at least one bottle. Finally, Berwyn fails to mention that it exceeded the federal action level during the 2012 to 2014 monitoring period, but it did not initiate lead service line replacements in response. Instead, Berwyn dismissed responsibility by issuing an ordinance making lead service line replacement the sole responsibility of homeowners.

Not only are we concerned that certain statements our local government makes are misleading to the public, but we are also concerned about the accuracy of the data on which Cicero and Berwyn are basing them. In 2018, Ixchel teamed up with researchers from Virginia Tech to test lead levels in the water, and found an even more significant lead problem in Cicero and Berwyn drinking water. Virginia Tech found that the 90th percentile at 25 houses in Berwyn and 51 houses in Cicero ranged from 8.2 to 15.5 ppb. These tests showed that 33% of the Berwyn homes and 31% of the Cicero homes had at least one sample above 10 ppb or two or more samples above 5 ppb. These discrepancies in sampling results could be attributed to sampling site violations. Illinois EPA found Cicero’s most recent 2018 samplings sites to be in violation for not collecting samples from at least 50% sites served by lead service lines, meaning that water quality was not monitored in some areas.

As community members, it is our expectation that our local government acknowledge and take our concerns about water quality seriously. Among other things, we ask that they prioritize public health and provide full transparency in the issue of water quality by working with the Illinois EPA to ensure that testing is done in a timely, consistent, and scientifically valid manner, and devoting more resources to educating residents about the potential dangers of our drinking water. Our hope is that all community members and government officials can productively work together to maintain healthy, thriving communities.