October 9, 2024

Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala, Department of Environmental Protection: Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Rit Aggarwala. I'm the commissioner at the New York City Department of Environmental Protection.

I'm glad that you all came today for a very important announcement on a number of levels about how the city is working in conjunction with the federal government and with resources provided by the federal government to keep New Yorkers safe in every aspect of their drinking water. And without further ado, I'd like to welcome and turn it over to our mayor, Eric Adams. Thank you.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you so much, Rit and your team over at DEP. And the entire city on how important this announcement is. And we want to continue to make sure, as we announced previously last week, we launched the final stage of a $2 billion project to repair a 35 million gallon a day leak in the Delaware Aqueduct, the largest tunnel of any kind in the world.

And it's just amazing when you think about it. I was really impressed to see how the ingenuity of bringing water here. We turn on our faucet, and we just believe the water appear from the water gods, and no, it does not. It takes a lot of work to make sure not only is the water delivered to our households, but that we make sure that it is healthy, clean, and continues to be some of the best water in our country.

So I want to thank Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi, who's stuck in traffic, but she's in route here now. We came into office with a clear mission, to build a safer, more affordable, and more livable city, and to make sure that taxpayers are not carrying the burden of what it takes to ensure we have good quality infrastructure. And every day, we're delivering on that promise.

Many things that are happening in our infrastructure, you don't see, you don't realize it until it's missing. But in fact, we're going to make sure that New Yorkers continue to get the quality that they deserve. And we're taking action to both keep our city safe, and make our city more affordable, because keeping New Yorkers safe is about more than just reducing crime. It includes the delivery of New York City's water supply, and that it continues to come in a very healthy way. So we're excited about today.

We are taking the next step towards ensuring that our water continues to be lead free. Lead has an amazing, dangerous impact on people in general, but specifically children. It could have an impact on the brain development and overall health of a child, and that's why we want to make sure that lead is not in our drinking water.

Lead pipes have been banned in New York City since 1960, but many privately owned water service lines were built before then, and still exist today. And they are disproportionately located in low income communities, and we are very clear on that. And so I want to be clear, our city already delivers lead free water to every household in New York City, and we put additives in the water that help prevent it from picking up any lead when it travels through privately owned lead water service lines. But we're not stopping there.

Today, we are announcing a $48 million investment to expand our free program to replace private water lines for eligible homeowners, ensuring they have the best infrastructure, bringing them clean, safe water that prevents lead exposure, and save families thousands of dollars. And we are focusing on environmental justice communities in Queens and in the Bronx that have long been disproportionately impacted by the environmental issues that they have faced.

Water service line replacement can cost anything from $10,000 and as high as $15,000. Imagine that impact on a family from $10,000 to $15,000. But we're happy that we have a free program that will be saving families money and replacing old infrastructure and keeping our water healthy and safe. And we're able to do this through the Biden administration's federal bipartisan infrastructure law, and support from Governor Hochul. Really hats off and thank you to both the president and our governor.

And I just want to specifically thank them because it saves taxpayers dollars with the implementation of this free service that we are providing. We're dedicated to building a lead free city. We're going to lead the way in accomplishing that task. And hats off to DEP for what your team is doing, Commissioner Aggarwala.

Let's continue to make sure that we save taxpayers dollars, particularly low income New Yorkers. Let's focus on those environmentally challenging communities and make sure that we utilize every dollar that we get from our federal and state government to protect our drinking water. Thank you very much. I'm going to turn it back over to you.

Commissioner Aggarwala: Thank you, mayor. And just to elaborate a little bit on what we are doing here, as the mayor described, there is no more important mission for us at DEP than keeping New Yorkers and our drinking water safe.

It's important to note that our drinking water is lead free when it is delivered from our reservoirs upstate, through our system, and into and through our water mains. Nobody should hesitate to drink New York City drinking water because it is the safest, most healthy option you have whenever you need to take a drink. And our water meets all federal and state health standards. And in fact, we test the city's tap water hundreds of times every day to ensure that it is safe, clean, and healthy. Last year, we performed 2.4 million tests on our drinking water.

While there is no lead in our distribution system, our challenge is that many older private properties have service lines of lead or galvanized steel. And these are the pipes that connect a home's plumbing from the plumbing that's in the building to the water main that's in the street. Although lead service lines, as the mayor noted, were banned in New York City in 1961, lead solder was still used in indoor plumbing. And that was not banned until 1987. So if your home was built before 1987, you could have lead in your household plumbing even if you don't have a lead service line.

Lead service lines are most common in one to four family homes. And because, of course, they were banned after 1961, it's only an issue in homes that are 60 years old or older. Big apartment buildings traditionally were never built with lead service lines. And so those are not an area that we are particularly concerned about.

And another challenge facing DEP on this topic is that because the service lines, even the part that is in the public right-of-way connecting to the water main, is private property. It is owned by the homeowner. We can't just go into homes and replace them. So we've had to take other measures to prevent lead from entering the homeowner's water supply after we deliver it from our water mains.

First, we treat our water with food-grade additives that provide a protective film on pipes that are made of lead. And that creates a barrier preventing lead from leaching from the pipe into the water. We also very carefully manage the acidity, the pH of our water, so that when it is delivered to New Yorkers, it is at a level that absolutely minimizes the chance of leaching of that lead in the pipes into the water. And in fact, in New York City, the overwhelming majority of lead poisoning cases are traced back to lead paint. And we know of no instance when there has been a lead poisoning case that has been traced to drinking water in New York City.

However, as the EPA has determined, no amount of lead is safe. And that's why we are working with state and federal partners on grant programs like this to help facilitate the replacement of private service lines. As the mayor pointed out, these can be a significant expense, up to $15,000. And we know most New Yorkers don't have that kind of money laying around. And so it's important that we find ways to help, especially for those people who have lead service lines who live in environmental justice areas or who are low-income homeowners or whose homes provide low-income housing.

And I would like to point out another thing that we've done a lot of analysis on. These lead service lines, they are distributed across lots of different neighborhoods, lots of different types of housing. This is not just an issue concentrated in low-income parts of the city. We have multi, multimillion-dollar mansions in very fancy parts of the city that have lead service lines. It's really about how long ago the home was built.

But we know that our low-income and environmental justice communities need the most help. And so today, we are announcing a program that builds on a very successful pilot program that DEP completed in 2022. During that pilot, we replaced 600 privately-owned lead service lines in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island at no cost to property owners. And today, as the mayor said, we are starting to make use of $48 million that we obtained from the Biden administration's bipartisan infrastructure law. And with the help and facilitation of New York State and the Environmental Facilities Corporation, that is allowing us to expand our replacement of lead service lines to communities like this one here.

We will be expanding into other neighborhoods next year as additional funding becomes available. Another step that we are taking to help New Yorkers protect themselves, even those whom we can't help change their lead service lines, is we will be reaching out directly to notify those property owners who have lead service lines, as well as property owners for whom our records are unclear and we don't know whether their service line is made of lead or not. If you're not sure about your service line, you can go online and check what we know about your property at nyc.gov/DEP/lead.

But starting next week, we will be sending out letters and emails to all DEP customers if we believe that you have a lead service line or if we don't know. So there are roughly 150,000 of these letters that are going to be going out over the next month or so. If you receive a letter, it is not a cause to panic. There are cost-effective things that you can do to protect yourself and your family, even if you cannot replace your lead service line right away.

The first thing is to flush your water in the morning when you get up. The issue with lead is not really the water running through the pipes. It's water sitting in the pipes. So if your whole household has been asleep overnight, first thing in the [morning], that's the moment when there might be risk of lead in your drinking water. And at that point, first thing in the morning, you just want to run your water 30 seconds, a minute or so, until it turns cold. That means that you're getting water from the water mains. And that water, as I said, is safe. That's something that everybody can do, whether you're a renter or an owner or what have you.

On this block, where we are in the district, where we received the federal money to do the first replacements, there are several properties that received letters from us asking if we could go ahead and replace their lead service line, saving them more than $10,000. If you are one of the people in those neighborhoods and you received that, please opt into this program. It will save you money. It will help us do our jobs. It will protect your family.

And I want to thank our federal, state, and city partners for helping us to keep New York City's drinking water safe. And I particularly want to thank the team at DEP that's been working hard to put this program together, starting with Kathryn Mallon, our chief operating officer, Deputy Commissioner Anastasios Georgelis, our general counsel, Elissa Stein Cushman, Deputy Commissioner Paul Rush, and the rest of the team, Janet Aristy, Chintan Patel, Chelsea McDermott, Salome Freud, Kaitlyn Richter, Tara Deegan, and Joe Olewnicki, among many others.

And I'd also like to point out that yet another program that we are doing with our colleagues at DDC, and I want to thank Tom for being here representing DDC, is going forward a decision that the Adams administration has made. Whenever either DDC or DEP changes a water main, if we encounter lead service lines, we will also offer to change the lead service line at no cost to the property owner. So these are two ways that we are working to do this.

And by the way, I'd like to show this is a copy of the letter. We will have 150,000 of these going out to New Yorkers. If you do not receive one, it means you do not have a lead service line. And if you are worried about it, you can check that website that I mentioned. But there is no cause for panic. And with that, we couldn't do any of this, as I said, because these lead service lines are private property, without the participation of enlightened New Yorkers who know when they are offered a good deal. And something that is worth $10,000 that can protect your family is certainly a good deal.

And with that, I'd like to thank Luis Melendez, who lives here on this block, who's going to be one of the first people to receive one of these bipartisan infrastructure law funded new service lines. And I want to invite Luis to say a few words, if you'd like.

Luis Melendez: Sure, I want to thank Eric Adams, the mayor, and I hope in the next four years, when you get reelected, that you do the sewer line. We need to do the sewer line. I want to thank DEP., thank you very much, and D.J. Cruz, and again, thank you, Mayor Adams, for coming to our block and doing this first, and I'm happy to be the first one, and mi casa es su casa. Thank you, thank you very much.

Question: Yes, for the mayor, two things. One, people who don't speak the language, they don't have access to internet already. Are you working with community organizations? And number two, Mr. Luis Melendez, [inaudible].

Commissioner Aggarwala: Oh, sure. Well, we'll see if we can encourage him back, and I'm sure he would. Of course, first of all, DEP, everything we do, we comply with the language access laws that govern New York City, which require us to make translations available, as you know, in 10 languages, and we do that.

We are also working with elected officials and other community leaders to get the word out, because of course, we do know that some New Yorkers might be hesitant if they receive a letter from the government, et cetera, and so we are certainly doing that. Our goal is to get the acceptance rate as close to 100 percent as we possibly can.

Melendez: Hello again. Yo prefiero que ustedes usen este programa para que puedan cambiar esto, porque yo, en verdad, yo no podía, con lo que cuesta para repasar la línea esta, yo no podría con el dinero, porque yo estoy retirado, y no podía. Pero me gustaría que todo el mundo lo hiciera, porque por eso que yo estoy un poquito loco, por el lead que me tomé toda la vida; porque yo viví en esta casa más de 60 años atrás, y por eso estoy un poquito loco, por el lead, so, háganlo, por favor.

Translation: I prefer that you all use this program so you can change this, because honestly, I couldn't afford it. With the cost of repairing this line, I couldn't afford it, since I'm retired. I couldn't. But I would like everyone to do it because that's why I'm a bit crazy, from the lead I've been exposed to all my life. I've lived in this house for over 60 years, and that's why I'm a little crazy, because of the lead. So please, do it.

Question: For the mayor, I know you talked about how, now that you've been mayor, you really want to bring it to the top for so many years, and you have not thought about it. I don't know how important it is that this project is coming to these low-income communities. [Inaudible].

Mayor Adams: Yeah, and it's part of our overall effort to try to get the money in your pockets. People don't realize, we can't do anything about inflation, the cost of bread, we can't do much about that. But there are things we can do in government that can bring down the cost of living in the city, because affordability is crucial. If it's reduced fare MetroCard, if it's paying for high-speed broadband for NYCHA residents, if it is paying for the college tuition of foster care children, or if it's doing this.

As a homeowner, I know what it is to get a $10,000 bill to replace your lead problem because you want your drinking water to be healthy. So when we do these initiatives, partnered with the federal and state government, this is putting money back into the pockets of homeowners, particularly in low-income communities that have historically not had this level of attention that we have been giving to these communities.

I've been in the Bronx probably more than any mayor in the history of this city, talking to Bronx residents, talking about how do we give back in a real way. So I could do nothing about the price of bread, but I could put bread back in your pocket. And that is what we want to do. And these are the creative ways that we're doing them.

Commissioner Aggarwala: Mayor, we have here some examples.

Question: Yes, mayor. We're talking about how you're still doing work for the city regardless of what's going on with the federal case. I'm wondering, do you consider this an example, and do you think people appreciate this sort of work?

Mayor Adams: Without a doubt. Focus, no distractions. And if you show me a homeowner that won't appreciate not having to pay $10,000 out of their pockets, I will show you someone that's not a New Yorker. That's right.

This is important, you know, of the functionality of finding ways to make this city affordable. This city has become extremely unaffordable for far too many New Yorkers, and something as simple as this means a lot to saving homeowners $10,000. $10,000 to a homeowner? I'm a homeowner. I know what it is when I had to replace my sewer line leading into my home because there was a leak. I had to pick up the cost. That was an unexpected cost, and so this means a lot to family members on this block.

This is a New York block, you know? These are hard-working, working-class people, children coming home from school. Everyday New Yorkers are here. Combination of older units of housing, combination of some of the newer developments, but this is the spirit and energy of New Yorkers. These are the blocks that I feel at home as it was stated, mi casa, su casa. I feel at ease on blocks like this, okay? I'm coming to your house. Thank you.

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