By Irene Romulo and Tomas Uriostegui

On August 22, 2019 the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency sent violation notices to the City of Berwyn for failing to adequately test lead levels in the city’s drinking water. This despite an official notice that was sent to residents advising them that their water was fine for consumption.

Community organizations and residents in both Berwyn and Cicero, have in the past expressed concerns about lead levels in the drinking water for both suburbs. In 2018, Ixchel, a community organization, partnered with Virginia Tech to test lead levels in Berwyn and Cicero’s water. They found that 33% of the Berwyn homes and 31% of the Cicero homes had at least one water sample with concerning lead levels.

The violations from the Illinois EPA have increased community concerns.

“I have three kids and none of them drink the water in Berwyn. When they go to school, they have bottled water,” said Daniel Mendez.

The first violation, issued on April 16, 2019, is for failure to submit lead profiles for the Berwyn community water supply for the January to June 2019 monitoring period, according to the violation notice sent in August. Berwyn officials should develop lead profiles from at least five homes with a lead service line every three months and submit the results to ensure compliance.

The second violation is for failing to submit the water distribution systems material inventory for 2018, inventory that should be submitted by Berwyn annually to the EPA.

In a meeting for third ward residents on September 19, Alderwoman Jeanie Reardon addressed the violations with community residents who expressed concerns.

“We got a notification of two violations regarding our testing for lead in the water. For two consecutive quarters the samples were not delivered to be tested and y’all got a report that said we’re great,” explained Alderwoman Reardon.

“Communication has already gone to the Clerk's office asking [Robert Schiller, the Director of Public Works in Berwyn] to come in on October 8th to explain to us what has been done to alleviate this problem and why, for two consecutive quarters they were not supplied...This is going to cost us money, it has prosecutorial potential. So, if you don’t do your job who is asking you to do your job? We are. Whether the mayor does anything about it, we shall see.”

Robert Schiller, the person responsible for submitting the samples, says the samples were drawn but that it was not clear how the EPA wanted the data. He alleges that, “All sample data has been submitted and all samples were substantially below the max allowable ppb requirements.”

The Illinois EPA has not responded to requests for comment.

The next full council meeting will be held October 8, 2019 from 8-9 p.m. at 6700 26th Street in Berwyn.