Contaminated water problems associated with aging or failing water infrastructure which is disproportionately impacting more poor minority communities, while local authorities expressing little or no concern, is happening, in ANOTHER American city. This time it’s Newark, NJ. And it’s pretty ugly. Newark has a lead problem.
News articles reporting on this are non-existent; but the NYT last covered this in October, 2018. The city politicians are downplaying the problem, of course, by disingenuously claiming that the water coming out of the water treatment plant is safe, and that only one of the two treatment plants are servicing the affected area. Neither claim is correct.
The water entering some households is significantly poisoned with lead at 5 — 65 times the EPA actionable limit (which is very generous to lead): city officials claim that only one of two water treatment plants is affected, although anecdotal evidence suggests that both plants are having trouble. And the trouble arises from Newark’s aging infrastructure in older neighborhoods: namely lead pipes.
And of course, the neighborhoods impacted are mostly older, poor, Black, LatinX, or other minorities.
I may have mentioned I’m not a Brian Williams fan (MSNBC), but I’ve been watching his show since late last week, because he’s REALLY pushing to try to get action on this problem. Only tonight did I realize, I’ve seen nothing on DKos. You see, he’s FROM Newark, and cares about his hometown; he, and other Newark residents believe the state response is ridiculous and insulting. They are asking for help, which is being coordinated through the Paradise Baptist Church and its pastor, the Reverent Bishop Jethro C. James. They need water and are asking for donations, however one can get it there, and is asking that people call (contact info/mailing address below). They are also stressing that they want WATER, not money.
If you want to hear what the politicians have to say, watch Brian William’s show tomorrow, they are supposed to be on he said. William’s intending to focus on getting some answers because the politicians have been lying, and any actions taken have been significantly less than reasonable to address the problem. Details on the problem are below the fold.
Last year, when news started to get out about the lead contamination, the city handed out free water filters to customers receiving water from the water treatment plan city officials designated as problematic. Problem is, at the levels of lead being detected, the filters did little to lower the drinking water lead levels, which ran as high as 973 parts per billion in places, ppb (~ 64 times the lead amount requiring immediate action to remediate and replace piping). Last reported averages for what the city has designated as the impacted area are ~ 5 times the EPA’s minimum actionable level of 15 ppb.
It’s all the city’s fault: the city changed chemicals in the one treatment plant, exchanging one that essentially protected the surfaces of the lead piping for one that was acidic. It dissolved the pipe surfaces and promoted increased lead solubility in the drinking water. The change was made, the city said, to mitigate another problem that was lowering the quality of water exiting the plant. Apparently the impact of making additive changes on the piping was NOT factored into the process change order.
So, what was the municipal response to this mistake? Make no changes to the processing, limit the number of households they offered inadequate water filters to, and force residents to come pick them up. This was last year.
The city also began to deliberately downplay the severity of the problem, and attempted to conceal how long they’ve known about it (some estimates claim 5 years). It was aided by all the attention and focus on Flint, sadly.
Here’s what the National Resources Defense Council, NRDC, says about Newark’s water:
The levels of lead in Newark, New Jersey’s drinking water are some of the highest recently recorded by a large water system in the United States. And we know the cause: City and state officials are violating the Safe Drinking Water Act in several ways, such as failing to treat its water to prevent lead from flaking off from pipes into residents’ drinking water and neglecting to notify people about the elevated levels and the health risks.
This graphic from the NDRC website shows how lead levels have increased with time, on average:
The NRDC site has all of the most recent info on attempts to hold officials to account and obtain relief for Newark residents — go read it.
When information finally went public (with an NRDC-filed lawsuit) lead levels were sky-rocketing, and small children began to test positive for elevated lead levels. But the city did little to help, and resisted suggestions this was an emergency.
Just in the last month, it decided to offer ‘free bottled water’ to households they deemed affected (~15,000 to 19,000), under the following conditions: you could be given two cases of 16.9 ounce bottles of water every two weeks, if you wanted to trek across town (most people don’t have cars), wait in line in the hot sun, and could prove you lived in the area the government designated as affected, and brought documents the city could use to verify the address (driver’s license, utility bill, other bills). people living in high rises are deemed ineligible. It’s hot as west Hades in Summer out in the heat where people are standing in line to be humiliated by the city, in order to obtain their two cases of water.
People living in the so-called safe area who nevertheless can prove elevated lead levels in their water (by paying for private testing), are on their own — no free water for them, from the city. And frankly, the water the city is providing to some, but not all affected residents in the designated problem area is not enough to mix baby formula for a week, never mind for two. People living in high-rise apartments in the official contaminate area are SOL, and cannot obtain water from the city either — no water for THEM.
To be clear, the city is offering two cases of 16.9 oz bottles of water, every two weeks — that’s about 6 1/3 gallons of water. A reasonably economical household requires 80-100 gallons of water per day, if people bathe daily and don’t water the lawn or don’t have one. The web link goes to the USGS web site which provides details on typical household activities and lists estimated water use.
There is no state of emergency declaration to be made by the mayor or the governor, apparently, although this issue is now going into its third year, and the pols are resisting the call to issue one. Until very recently, the state and city were still claiming the water was SAFE, and that it only affects customers drawing from one water treatment plant. For nearly a year and a half, top officials in Newark denied that their water system had a widespread lead problem, despite ample evidence that the city was facing a public health crisis that had echoes of the one in Flint, Mich. Even as the risk persisted in the spring, the officials in Newark, New Jersey’s most populous city, took few precautionary measures, instead declaring on their website, “NEWARK’S WATER IS ABSOLUTELY SAFE TO DRINK.”
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This is where Paradise Baptist Church and Reverend Jethro C. James come in — Paradise is taking donations of water to give to anyone who asks, no questions asked and no proof of residence required. He has also recruited other church congregations and other denominations to help. To quote what I heard tonight, he said, more or less, ‘If you need water, call us or have someone call. we’ll either get water to you or get you to the water.’ Costco, for example, allows a person to pay for cases/a pallet of water where they are, and designated Rev. James’ people to come pick it up locally. Still, before doing that, call the church to get instructions. Or have water shipped to the church. He’s storing it in the vestry, the sanctuary, the kitchen, his study — wherever he can, to give water to a city in need.
Rev. James says he has people to deliver water, people to pick up water. He doesn’t want money, but setting up a GoFundMe to buy pallets of water and by gasoline for deliveries still might be a good idea, if the church can administer it.
Again, the contact info is Reverend Jethro C. James; Paradise Baptist Church; 348 15th Ave, Newark, NJ 07103; 973-624-6614.