Illinois day cares struggle to reduce lead discovered through mandatory water testing
Jonny Bahena refills water bottles in April at the Open Arms Christian Child Development Center in Glenview. - Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune/TNS

When administrators at Open Arms Christian Child Development Center in Glenview, Illinois, learned they had to test their water for lead to keep their license, it sent them down an expensive and time-consuming path. The mandatory testing, required under a 2017 state law, revealed trace amounts of the toxic metal at some of the day care’s drinking water fixtures. It took hours of plumbing work, several pounds’ worth of new metal fixtures, more than two years and thousands of dollars before the day care was able to reduce its water lead levels below the threshold set by the Illinois Department o...