New Map Shows Syracuse Lead in Tap Water Hot Spots

Syracuse, New York, announced in August 2024that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-mandated lead monitoring during the first half of the year found extraordinarily high levels of lead in local drinking water. In response, working closely with partner organizations based in Syracuse, NRDC sought to gather information on the causes and scope of lead contamination in city's drinking water. We submitted requests under the New York State Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) for the city's lead-monitoring data from 2022 to 2024 as well as other key related information.

NRDC recently received lead-monitoring data from the city for 2023 and the first half of 2024, and we have mapped the data below (2022 data has not been provided). The map highlights by color the lead levels reported by the city, showing that lead contamination is significant and found across neighborhoods throughout Syracuse-with high lead levels well in excess of the EPA's lead action level of 15 parts per billion (ppb) hitting homes in all parts of the city.

Using the data portrayed in the map for the first half of 2024, Syracuse has admittedthat its 90th-percentile lead level was 70 ppb, which is more than four times higher than the EPA's 15 ppb lead action level. This high lead level triggers federal requirements to reevaluate the city's water treatment system to reduce lead levels and to start to remove its lead service lines. Syracuse's lead level was far higher than the 27 ppb that independent testing found in Flint, Michigan, and the 57 ppb found in Newark, New Jersey, where the EPA took emergency action due to the severity of the problem. (In Flint, neither independent testing nor that done by the city conformed with EPA testing rules, so the results were not fully representative.)

While there is no safe level of lead, the map highlights the extraordinary scope of lead contamination in Syracuse, distinguishing between the risks posed by different levels of lead as follows:

• 0 parts per billion (ppb) is the only safe level of lead exposure according to the EPA, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, and other agencies.
• 5 ppb is the U.S. Food & Drug Administration's standard for lead in bottled waterand the Canadian lead in tap water standard.
• 10 ppb is the EPA's new lead action level, which becomes effective in 2027.
• 15 ppb is the EPA's current lead action level, which the agency admits is not a "safe" level of lead.

The EPA sampling protocols are meant to provide a snapshot in time across a service area to evaluate, in part, whether corrosion control treatment (i.e., chemical additives that reduce lead leaching into water) is working properly. Seeing high lead levels across a city, like here, is concerning because it indicates that the water may not have been appropriately treated to achieve the right chemistry to minimize the release of lead into tap water.

NRDC submitted FOIL requests from Syracuse not only for 2022-2024 lead-monitoring results but also for information on how the city selected the locations it was testing and what its monitoring protocols were. The city provided data for 2023 and the first half of 2024, which is mapped above. But as of November 1, 2024, Syracuse has failed to respond to our requests for lead data for 2022 and for the second half of 2024, nor has it provided information on how it selected homes for testing or the lead-monitoring protocols it used. Because of the city's failure to respond in a timely manner to those requests, NRDC filed a FOIL request with the Onondaga County Health Department for that information on November 1, 2024; that newer request is still pending as of the date of publication of this blog.

In October 2024, NRDC, local activists, and two reporters (including one from the Washington Post) canvassed Syracuse homes with very high lead levels in their tap water according to the city's reports. The canvass found that many occupants of these homes either had no recollection of any monitoring being done inside their homes (as is required by EPA rules) or described monitoring practices (such as using an outdoor hose spigot) that were unlawful under EPA rules.

On October 31, in response to inquiries to Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh about problems with the city's monitoring based upon our canvass, the mayor issued a statementindicating that the city had placed two city employees on administrative leave for allegedly improperly taking some lead samples from outdoor hose outlets rather than from indoor kitchen or bathroom faucets as required by federal law.

The Washington Post recently reportedon the city's monitoring problems after participating in part of the canvass. While testing from outdoor hose outlets violates federal rules, we are aware of no data indicating that lead levels are generally higher from such outdoor outlets than they are from indoor kitchen faucets. Corrosive water can release lead from either type of outlet. So the improper monitoring of outdoor hose faucets does not fully explain why lead levels were so high in the first half of 2024.

This is the second time that the city has falsely sounded the "all clear," coming on the heels of its announcement on October 21, 2024, of an improbably dramatic decrease in lead present in samples, incorrectly implying that lower follow-up results negate the accuracy of earlier testing (they do not). Moreover, when speaking with residents in impacted homes, NRDC, local partners, and reporters also heard troubling reports of follow-up samples taken improperly in ways that can underrepresent lead levels in drinking water. The city has yet to announce any formal investigation into these conditions, nor has the city announced any follow up investigation looking into how, why, and for how long its employees may have disregarded EPA protocols.

For the last two years (2022and 2023), Syracuse had been reporting that it was skating precisely at or just above the EPA lead action level of 15 ppb. While there may be questions about exactly how these earlier tests were taken as well, it is imperative that officials get to the bottom of the apparent spike in lead levels in 2024.

The city must offer protections that have worked in other cities facing similar problems, like providing point-of-use filters to remove lead from drinking and cooking water. The city also needs to reevaluate and fix its corrosion control program, institute a far more aggressive lead service line replacement program, and provide comprehensive public outreach and education about the risks of lead in tap water and provide door-to-door delivery of filters and education about how to install and use them correctly.

It is also important to note that lead levels in tap water can vary significantly from day to day due to a variety of factors, including water flow, temperature, water pressure spikes and hydraulic changes, and periodic release of lead particles from pipes. Even disturbances of a lead service line due to nearby construction or heavy truck traffic can shake loose lead particles. So, a single sample showing low lead levels offers no assurance of safety, while a single high lead sample is cause for concern because it indicates that the water may be reacting with the pipes to release lead. This is one reason why EPA rules require cities to test 100 homes regularly, and the agency will now require all lead service lines to be replaced within 10 years. Each lead pipe is basically a ticking time bomb, ready to release lead periodically, and cities throughout the country are just one event (such as pipe disturbances) or one incompetent mistake (such as an inappropriate change in water treatment or source water) away from a mass lead-contamination event.

Syracuse is clearly at risk from such an event or mistake, or even just routine lead releases from its lead pipes. More than 14,000 homes in the city use lead service lines and are likely to have high levels of lead at the tap. The city has released an interactive mapof where those homes are thought to be located.

As we recently noted, 12 concerned medical providers, residents, and national groups sent a letter on October 16, 2024, urging officials to declare a state of emergency in Syracuse based on the health harms threatened by the extraordinary levels of lead in the water. Our letter also pushed leaders to fully inform all residents about the potential risks posed and to take decisive actions to address lead in the city's tap water. There is no safe level of lead ingestion.

Mayor Walsh has provided a partial response to some of the requests in the groups' letter, including making a promise to provide water filters to some city residents (but as of November 1, had yet to follow through on that promise). We are currently evaluating the mayor's partial response but are hopeful that city, state, and local officials will fully respond to the demands and provide information to the public about the causes and extent of Syracuse's lead contamination problem. Only full transparency-and a robust response to this crisis-will protect the public's health and help restore the faith of Syracuse residents in their water supply.

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