[pdovy]

Not only that, but it's really difficult to get the service line replaced even if you're willing to pay for it.

We went through the exercise a few years ago. It can be difficult to find a plumbing service willing to do this kind of work because not only do they need a special certification (makes sense) but the company has to put up something like a $5000 bond on their work with the city.

On top of that replacing the portion of the line that goes from the shutoff to the main requires digging up the street, so it can only be done if your street is not currently on a "moratorium" because it was recently repaved. Finally, the city charges a significant amount in permitting fees before you even get to paying for the plumbing service, roadwork repair and landscaping.

We finally gave up on that project and given the relatively low level leeching into our water just decided that we could live with using water filters specifically designed to remove lead for any water that our kids drink / cook with.

If Chicago was really serious about tackling this they could start with waiving permitting fees and bond requirements and streamline the process for managing the part of the process that occurs on city property. That'd at least make replacing these more tractable during a remodel.

[dylan604]

>they could start with waiving permitting fees and bond requirements

This was my first thought as well, then I remembered Chicago.

[jahnu]

That's incredible. What sort of levels do you have to put up with? Is there any kind of monitor you can install to detect a spike?

[pdovy]

IIRC the level after running the water for 5 min in the morning was around 1 PPB, so not high enough to freak out about, but not zero. I just generally assume that I should not give my kids water straight from the tap, because the level _could_ spike for various reasons like them working on the water main, etc.

As someone else pointed out, Chicago has made some changes here - and they plan to eventually remove all service lines. That said - this is Chicago. The mayor had a goal to remove 650 lines this year and there was a story in the Chicago Tribune recently that so far that number is ... 3. For context there are ~400k lines to replace.

[OldHand2018]

The OP mentioned that this was a few years ago. Things are different now. Literally one month ago Illinois became the second state to legally require all lead pipes to be replaced [1]. I do believe that the Chicago city ordinance of last year waives all permitting fees now. I am not sure how it is going to be paid for: public money? homeowner pays?

[1] https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocNum=3739&...

[dylan604]

> I am not sure how it is going to be paid for: public money? homeowner pays?

I'd suggest that the Union that voted to keep the lead as a requirement pay. /evilgrin