What's in CHICAGO's water?
CHICAGO has a health-based violation on record, but none in the last five years - an older issue, not necessarily a current one. 2,721,308 people get their water from it, across 526,883 connections.
CHICAGO's record against the rest of the country
CHICAGO has 56 violations on record in total, 1 of them health-based - ranking it 7,401th of 12,903 systems by violation count, the 43th percentile nationally.
Against the IL average
CHICAGO's 1 health-based violations sit within the IL average of 5.0, across 560 systems statewide. See the lead and copper guide for why lead counts differently.
Most recent violation on record
CHICAGO's most recent violation on record is dated 2025-02-07, with the most recent health-based one dated 1993-07-01. Last reported to EPA: 05/27/2026.
The concern categories on record
CHICAGO's flagged contaminants and rule violations, grouped by what they actually mean for a filter choice rather than left as EPA's raw code list:
- Lead & copper - flagged from: Lead and Copper Rule
The most severe category on record is lead & copper, which points toward a lead-class filter if you want to address it directly.
What CHICAGO's record does not cover
Everything on this page is CHICAGO's own reported record under the Safe Drinking Water Act - a regulatory filing, not a sample of your tap. Water quality can still change between the meter and the faucet - household plumbing sits outside what a record of 56 logged violations can see. The guide to what this data misses covers that gap.