Getting the lead out in Pilsen
Illinois environmental investigators found alarming levels of lead near an elementary school in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, reports the Chicago Tribune’s Michael Hawthorne, prompting state and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials to conduct a joint investigation intended to determine the lead’s source. The fact that U.S. EPA is even devoting resources to the lead problem near Perez Elementary School is a relative triumph for environmentalists and the Pilsen community — a low-to-middle income neighborhood that is more than 90 percent Mexican. Recent history and the current federal government budget battle show how fragile political support is for complex pollution investigations, even those where the affected party is school children. (more…)
