As Gina Ramirez buckled her 11-year-old son into her car for their drive to school, she handed him a plastic water bottle. “I would love to be able to have him put a cup under the tap if he was thirsty,” Ramirez said. She can’t. Ramirez lives in a home on the Southeast Side that’s serviced by a lead water pipe — a toxic relic found in most old homes in the city and many across the country. A longtime activist, Ramirez knows that she and many of her neighbors have lead pipes in a community where residents are already overburdened by toxic pollutants in the air and soil. She also knows Chicago is lagging behind federal requirements to warn residents about their presence, and that the city isn’t planning to finish replacing them until 2076 — three decades past a federal deadline. Chicago has the highest number of lead water service lines in the nation, with an estimated 412,000 of about 491,000 lines at least partly made of lead or contaminated with the dangerous metal. WBEZ, Grist and Inside Climate News have for the first time analyzed city data obtained through a public records request that allows Chicago’s residents to see where the problem is most acute — and how it intersects with poverty and race. Read more at WBEZ.org or the link in bio. Story by Keerti Gopal | Inside Climate News, Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco | WBEZ, Amy Qin | WBEZ, Clayton Aldern and Peter Aldhous Photos by Keerti Gopal/Inside Climate News, Anthony Vazquez/Chicago Sun-Times #leadpipes #chicago #illinois #environment #southside #news #chicagonews #politics #climatenews