Chicago’s top water officials defended Monday their decision to skirt a law requiring the city to warn nearly a million Chicagoans that their water comes from toxic lead service pipes.

Aldermen pressed Department of Water Management leaders during a City Council hearing about why the department has fallen far short of notification requirements.

The city has mailed out fewer than a tenth of the letters it was required to send by a federal notification deadline in November 2024, acknowledged Patrick Schwer, director of water quality surveillance. But he defended the decision as a practical move to spend more money on fixing pipes.

“Spending $10 million just to send a bunch of letters that people throw in their trash seems like a waste of money, especially when that money should be spent o

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