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The National Resources Defense Council, a non-profit international environmental advocacy group, drafted a letter calling on Syracuse officials and state government leaders to address the city’s high rate of lead-contaminated water, according to a Wednesday NRDC press release.

Medical providers, Syracuse residents and national groups urge the state to declare a state of emergency in Syracuse due to the potential health threats of lead in the letter. The letter is addressed to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James and Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh, among other officials.

The letter lists the citizens’ concerns, including the Syracuse Water Department’s alleged failure to adequately publicize water testing data that reflected dangerous levels of lead. NRDC’s release states that Syracuse has recorded the highest lead levels in a water system of its size in decades.

“Given our residents’ high reliance on lead service lines, the test results strongly indicate that Syracuse is in a water safety crisis,” the letter reads. “We believe much more should be done immediately to make the public aware of the severity of lead-contaminated drinking water.”

The release coincides with an Oct. 8 announcement from the Biden-Harris administration that the United States Environmental Protection Agency will now require all U.S. cities to identify and replace all lead pipes within the next 10 years.

Syracuse has exceeded the federal lead level limit for drinking water, according to an August 2024 notice from the city’s water department. City tests revealed that the lead levels are more than double those found in Flint, Michigan and “significantly worse” than in Newark, New Jersey, according to the NRDC.

More than 14,000 homes in Syracuse use lead pipes and are likely to expel high levels of lead at the tap, NRDC’s release states. Syracuse’s 70 parts per billion lead level is higher than the 27 ppb that independent testing found in Flint and the 57 ppb found in Newark. The safe limit is 5 ppb, according to the CDC.

The letter also includes seven courses of actions that NRDC urged health department officials at the city, county and state level to appropriately address the situation. In addition to declaring a state of emergency, the suggestions include informing residents about the current health dangers, providing point-of-use filters to people with lead service lines in their homes and informing residents about how to get free blood lead testing.

NRDC requested a public meeting to discuss local, state and federal actions needed to address the crisis in the letter.

Groups involved with the letter, including Families for Lead Freedom Now and the New York Civil Liberties Union, said they hope for a detailed reply from officials by Oct. 25. If there is no response, the groups said they will file a request for an EPA emergency order.

According to the EPA’s website, the agency responds to emergency orders by funding response actions directly or enforcing sanctions on the potentially-responsible parties.

Published on October 16, 2024 at 11:19 pm

Contact Madeline: mmgoodhe@syr.edu