Why is it so unusually expensive to replace lead pipes in Chicago? ^34.7%

Grist - By Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco, Keerti Gopal, Clayton Aldern - 6/30/2026, 8:30 AM

Negativity Bias 16.9% - Appeal to Authority 16.3% - Availability Heuristic 9.8%

No city dealing with a lot of lead pipes spends as much as Chicago does to replace them. With more than 400,000 lead water service lines, Chicago has the largest known inventory of lead pipes of any city in the country. Officials say replacing each one costs about $31,000 on average — more than six times the Environmental Protection... more