A cut lead pipe is pulled from a dig site for testing at a home in Royal Oak, Mich., on Nov. 16, 2021. The Environmental Protection Agency will soon strengthen lead in drinking water regulations. (AP Photo / Carlos Osorio, File)

Decades after officials banned lead in gasoline for new cars and stopped the sale of lead paint there are still an estimated 500,000 U.S. children with levels of lead in their blood that are considered high, and experts say lead in drinking water is an important source.

The village of Robbins water tower is pictured on Dec. 1, 2022. (WTTW News)
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Over Thanksgiving week, hundreds of Robbins residents were left with dry homes following two water main breaks. It is just part of a long history of water infratructure problems in the town. 

A Chicago Works sign hangs on the fence separating traffic from ongoing work to renovate the Dearborn Street bridge. (Heather Cherone/WTTW News)

Representatives of the city’s Department of Transportation and the Budget Office declined to provide WTTW News with a full breakdown of spending during 2021 and 2022 under the banner of Chicago Works.

President Joe Biden greets firefighters as he tours the National Interagency Fire Center, Sept. 13, 2021, in Boise, Idaho. (AP Photo / Evan Vucci, File)

Pay raises for the federal firefighters had been included in last year’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill, but they had been held up as Biden administration officials studied recruitment and retention data to decide where to deliver them.

The scene of a fatality car crash, June 2, 2021, in Tulsa, Okla. Nearly 43,000 people were killed on U.S. roads last year, the highest number in 16 years as Americans returned to the highways after the pandemic forced many to stay at home.  (Tanner Laws / Tulsa World via AP, File)

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said America faces a crisis on its roads. The safety administration urged state and local governments, drivers and safety advocates to join in an effort to reverse the rising death trend.

The scene of a fatality car crash, June 2, 2021, in Tulsa, Okla. (Tanner Laws / Tulsa World via AP, File)
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The 10.5% jump over 2020 numbers was the largest percentage increase since the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began its fatality data collection system in 1975. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said America faces a crisis on its roads. 

A water lead testing kit. (WTTW News)
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Lead service lines connect approximately 400,000 Chicago homes with water mains buried under city streets, and can leach a brain-damaging chemical into drinking water. 

President Joe Biden pledged Wednesday to replace all 400,000 lead service lines in Chicago, saying Mayor Lori Lightfoot had urged him to make it a high priority. (WTTW News)
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The $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill approved in November 2021 includes $15 billion to fund lead service line replacement efforts and $3 billion is set to flow to states and cities in 2022. A Biden administration plan calls for all of the lead service lines to be removed in a decade. That would cost $45 billion.

Water flows out of the Rockwall-Forney Dam in Forney, Texas, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022. (AP Photo / LM Otero)
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For much of the past couple of decades, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers declined to reveal the conditions of dams in the National Inventory of Dams — which it maintains — citing security concerns stemming from the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

(WTTW News)
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A report from the Illinois Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers has graded the state on everything from roads to drinking water. The last time the report was released was 2018.

A sign warning of radioactive materials is seen on a fence around a nuclear reactor containment building on Monday, April 26, 2021, a few days before it stopped generating electricity at Indian Point Energy Center in Buchanan, N.Y. (AP Photo / Seth Wenig, File)

A certification and bidding process opened Tuesday for a civil nuclear credit program that is intended to bail out financially distressed owners or operators of nuclear power reactors, the U.S. Department of Energy told The Associated Press exclusively, shortly before the official announcement. 

Pipeline used to carry crude oil is shown at the Superior, Wis., terminal of Enbridge Energy, June 29, 2018. (AP Photo / Jim Mone, File)
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A rule finalized Tuesday will restore key provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act, a bedrock environmental law designed to ensure community safeguards during environmental reviews for a wide range of federal projects and decisions, the White House said.

President Joe Biden speaks in the East Room of the White House, on Feb. 15, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo / Alex Brandon)
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The infusion from the bipartisan measure enacted in November, combined with annual funding through an ongoing recovery program, will enable agencies by 2030 to finish work on 22 sites designated a quarter-century ago as among the region's most degraded. 

Local engineering and construction firms are gearing up for big business after President Joe Biden signed the $1 trillion infrastructure bill into law. (WTTW News)
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The $1 trillion infrastructure plan was signed into law by President Joe Biden. Nationwide, the plan will send billions to state and local governments for long-needed upgrades. 17 billion of those dollars are headed to Illinois, adding to the 45 billion the state is already spending on infrastructure thanks to the 2019 Rebuild Illinois bill. 

(WTTW News)

The $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan signed into law Monday by President Joe Biden includes $1.7 billion that will help Chicago “kick-start” lagging efforts to replace lead service lines responsible for contaminating the tap water in homes across the city, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said. 

President Joe Biden signs the “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act” during an event on the South Lawn of the White House, Monday, Nov. 15, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo / Evan Vucci)

The president hopes to use the infrastructure law to build back his popularity, which has taken a hit amid rising inflation and the inability to fully shake the public health and economic risks from COVID-19.