Waukegan wants a picture of your pipe. The city is now asking residents to photograph their water service line and send the image electronically so officials can determine whether it needs to be replaced, part of an accelerated push to find and remove lead pipes across some of the city's oldest neighborhoods. City employees are also available to perform the test in person for residents who would rather not do it themselves.
The new photo-identification approach was detailed in a report from the Chicago Tribune, which found that most Waukegan homes needing replacement sit in older parts of town, primarily east of Lewis Avenue between 10th Street and Greenwood Avenue. Some of those houses are more than 100 years old, and David Motley, the city's public relations director, said identifying pipe types has now become an obligation that falls on residents themselves. Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham has personally knocked on doors in older neighborhoods to spread the word, according to the same report.
A Statewide Problem With a Local Price Tag
Waukegan's predicament is part of a much larger picture. Illinois leads the nation with more than 1.07 million projected lead service lines, according to NRDC analysis of federal survey data, putting the state's cities under heavier pressure than almost anywhere else in the country. In Waukegan alone, the city has said an estimated 9,000 of its 21,000 water service connections contain lead, and it has already identified close to 8,000 more homes that need replacement, per the Tribune's reporting.
The stakes for individual homeowners are steep. City officials reported in July that replacing a private lead service line without state or federal grant assistance would cost residents between $10,000 and $15,000 — a burden the city says it is working to avoid passing onto families. Waukegan has a median household income of $71,919, well below Lake County's overall average of $110,416, and roughly 15.3% of residents live in poverty, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. Mayor Cunningham said the city is pursuing state and federal funds specifically so replacement costs do not fall on local families.
Free Replacements, Funded Through Grants
So far, that strategy has produced results. Waukegan has provided new copper pipes to 1,200 homes, funded through state and federal grants administered by the Illinois EPA, the Tribune reported. The city anticipates a $10 million grant will enable replacement in roughly 800 more homes, while a separate $15 million grant is expected to fund work in about 1,200 additional houses. Waukegan says it will continue seeking grant funding and will prioritize its oldest housing stock and most vulnerable neighborhoods as the work continues.
Those grants are possible in part because of a state financing mechanism: under rules adopted in 2024, the Illinois EPA offers 30-year to 40-year loans at 0% interest for municipal lead line replacement, including principal forgiveness for communities that meet disadvantaged criteria — a category Waukegan's demographics place it squarely within. The work itself will run from August 2026 through June 2028, and the city plans to pair the water utility upgrades with its annual street resurfacing schedule.
Winning Back Trust After a Reluctant Fall
Getting residents to cooperate hasn't been simple. Robinson Engineering went door to door during the city's initial identification effort, but federal immigration enforcement activity made residents reluctant to answer their doors last fall, according to the Tribune's account. City officials have since leaned on lower-pressure outreach: flyers distributed during the June 29 American Independence Parade, mailers sent to older neighborhoods, and an outreach table planned for Scoop weekend in downtown Waukegan. Waukegan aldermen are also expected to discuss the program directly at ward meetings, with council members going door to door in a city where each ward contains roughly 10,000 residents.
Jonathan Flowers, a senior engineer with Robinson Engineering, and Antonio Dominguez, Waukegan's director of water utilities, are among the officials working on the identification effort, alongside Steve Cieslica, an engineer with Trotter & Associates, per the Tribune. The city has framed the photo-based system as a way to speed up an already federally mandated timeline: the U.S. EPA's Lead and Copper Rule Improvements, finalized in October 2024, require nearly all public water systems nationwide to identify and replace 100% of lead service lines within 10 years. Waukegan says it plans to move faster than that deadline requires.
Neighboring North Chicago Faces the Same Race
Waukegan isn't alone in Lake County. Neighboring North Chicago will identify approximately 900 homes needing lead service line replacement and received a $2.4 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to help fund the work, the Tribune reported. That city offers free lead service line replacement as well, plans to replace about 200 homes each year, and will begin construction once 40 residents commit to the project. North Chicago's initial phase, funded for around 150 homes, is set to start construction in August 2026 and finish around Christmas.
State law adds another layer of urgency to both efforts. Illinois's Lead Service Line Replacement and Notification Act, enacted under Public Act 102-0613 in 2022, explicitly prohibits partial lead pipe replacements, meaning cities like Waukegan must swap out both the public and private portions of a line at once rather than patching sections piecemeal — a rule intended to prevent the kind of partial fix that can temporarily elevate lead exposure by disturbing existing plumbing, according to the Illinois EPA. Under that same statute, water suppliers were required to submit complete material inventories to the state by April 2024 and must finalize comprehensive replacement plans by April 2027.
The city has emphasized that the danger lies entirely in aging service lines, not in the water itself. Waukegan's water utility draws raw drinking water directly from Lake Michigan, treating it at a municipal plant before distributing it across more than 21,000 connections, and homes built after 1990 most likely have copper pipes and do not need replacement. For the older housing stock that remains — some of it more than a century old — the city's message is simple: send a photo, and let officials determine what's underground before the federal clock runs out.
