It's Curious City, where we take your questions about Chicago and the region, and investigate, report, explore, from WBEZ.

For the last several years, Chicagoans have been deluged with a stream of bad news about lead in the water, in schools, in park fountains, and now in

their homes.

Chicago is the latest city to face questions about its drinking water.

This time in some of the Chicago Park District's outdoor drinking fountains.

Over the next few weeks, more than 250 Chicago public schools will be tested for lead.

Earlier this year, a Chicago Tribune investigation revealed that city officials weren't doing enough to warn residents about potential hazards of lead running through the city's pipes.

I'm Alexander Solomon, editor of Curious City.

And Curious City's been answering questions about lead in the water for a couple of years now.

Like this one we got from Mike Stevens.

Essentially, he wants to know, how do we fix this?

How do we get rid of the lead in the drinking water in Chicago?

Curious City reporter Monica Ang has been reporting on this story, and she's found the answer is it will take a lot of money and a lot of political will.

And she's joining me now to talk about that. Hey, Monica. Hey, Alexandra. So Monica, we hear that lead is bad,

bad for kids. Why should we be concerned about lead in our drinking water? Well, mostly because

kids with early exposure to lead can have developmental

problems that can lead to lower IQ, depression, and violent behavior. Some researchers even think

this could be related to some of the violence we've seen in Chicago. But for adults, also, you see

heart disease related to lead. So it really affects things like longevity. And is there any

amount of lead that's considered safe if it's in the water? Out of practicality, the EPA does allow

some lead in water, but health experts say no amount of lead is safe. Okay, so there are all kinds

of health risks that come from exposure to lead in the water.

...