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Several community groups petitioned the EPA on Thursday to immediately act to protect residents from lead in their drinking water.

According to the petition, the East Chicago Water Department and Indiana Department of Environmental Management have failed to adequately address the problem in the short-term, so the Environmental Protection Agency should use its emergency powers.

The agency previously used its emergency powers under the Safe Drinking Water Act in Flint, Michigan. Lead can cause irreversible learning disabilities and behavioral problems for children, health problems and is a suspected carcinogen.

The groups want EPA to immediately provide or, in the alternative, order the city or state to provide free faucet filters that meet EPA standards or distribute bottled water. Residents living in the USS Lead Superfund site in the city's Calumet neighborhood should be given first priority, because of the cumulative risk of exposure, the petition said.

EPA in December said it found elevated lead levels in drinking water at 18 of 43 homes it tested as part of a pilot study in the Superfund site. The lead in water is a result of lead in plumbing materials and insufficient use of corrosion control chemicals, the agency said. Lead in water is not related to lead in soil.