Syracuse officials insist drinking water is clean as residents call for a state of emergency

By Nicole Chavez, CNN

(CNN) — Darlene Medley says she can’t trust the water coming from the faucets at her Syracuse, New York, home if she wants to keep her children safe – even as the city says it’s safe.

She is worried the lead pipes might poison her 8-year-old twin boys, just like the paint from the walls at her former apartment did years ago.

“It’s terrifying,” Medley, 44, told CNN. “I must now keep bottled water, not only for them to drink but also to cook.”

“I know people say you can boil water, and I understand all that, but you’re talking to a family that has already been affected by lead poisoning,” she said.

Medley, along with other residents and advocates in Syracuse, began questioning the water quality at their homes in August, when the city’s water department said it found elevated lead levels at some homes during routine checks. City officials have since said testing problems led to faulty results and reassured residents the water is safe, but some remain skeptical.

Exposure to lead has been linked to adverse effects on children’s health, including damage to the brain and nervous system that could manifest as lower IQ, learning and behavior difficulties, hearing loss, speech problems, and impaired growth and development.

The situation in Syracuse recalls the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, where in 2014 officials began to use the Flint River as a water source but did not treat the water properly with anti-corrosive agent, causing lead from old pipes and other toxins to leach into the water supply.

Nationwide, an effort of at least $15 billion is underway to replace lead service lines within 10 years, though advocates and federal officials have estimated it could cost tens of billions of dollars more.

Erik Olson, a senior strategic director for the climate advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council, spoke Tuesday at a rally outside Syracuse City Hall, calling on authorities to address what concerned residents say is a drinking water crisis.

“Syracuse’s lead contamination problem is serious and needs to be taken as a serious matter. We are urging that there be an emergency declaration declared here,” Olson said.

City notices of elevated lead levels in drinking water sparked fear in residents

Residents began worrying in August, when the city’s water department sent a notice warning them elevated lead levels had been found in drinking water at some homes and buildings.

Water samples were taken from 104 homes in July, the notice read, and 27 – more than a quarter – came back with lead levels above the limit for tap water set by the US Environmental Protection Agency.

The agency requires cities with such levels to “provide public education, adjust treatment, and complete lead service line replacement,” the notice says.

The EPA is working with the New York State Department of Health to ensure the drinking water systems fully comply with federal regulations, said its spokesperson, Stephen McBay.

“Based on recent results, the city exceeded the lead action level, which triggers a series of required response actions. This exceedance is not a violation, and the state is closely tracking the city’s performance in implementing these required measures,” McBay said.

City officials said in their notice that “the source of lead in the sampled drinking water is the lead service lines feeding these homes and lead fittings and/or solder in the home’s internal plumbing.”

While the city’s water mains do not contain lead and the water supply sourced from Skaneateles Lake is free of lead, homes built before 1986 may have lead in their plumbing, including the pipes connecting them to the water system, city officials said.

New lead pipes have been banned in the US since the 1980s, but there are up to 9 million lead service lines across the country with many in “lower-income communities and communities of color,” according to the EPA.

There are about 145,000 people living in Syracuse, with nearly 52% White and 29% Black residents, according to the US Census Bureau. Census figures also show at least 27% of the city’s residents live in poverty.

Lead-monitoring data from 2023 and the first half of 2024, collected by the city and obtained by NDRC, showed that elevated levels of lead contamination were found across Syracuse and most were in low-income areas.

Last year, 9.4% of children in Syracuse who were tested last year had elevated lead levels in their blood, according to data from the Onondaga County Health Department. An elevated lead level is defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as higher than 3.5 micrograms per deciliter of blood for children under 6. The CDC notes, however, that no amount of lead is safe for children.

In New York, health care providers are required to test children ages 1 and 2 for lead poisoning and assess the risk of lead exposure until they are 6 years old.

The lead exposure in Syracuse has largely been attributed to the large number of homes and buildings with lead paint, city officials said.

There also are at least 14,000 known properties with lead service lines in the upstate New York city, Greg Loh, Syracuse’s chief policy officer, told CNN. That number is expected to increase in the coming months as city officials complete a city-wide inventory to comply with a recent EPA rule, Loh added.

Several residents and the National Resources Defense Council sent a letter last month urging local, state and federal officials to declare a state of emergency in Syracuse to make additional funding available to address the potential exposure to lead-contaminated water. The letter also urged officials to take other actions, including providing filters certified for lead removal.

Tests were ‘improperly’ taken, officials say

Since the test results in Syracuse were made public, city officials said they retested 24 of the impacted homes and only two had high lead levels. The original tests were “administered improperly” and two employees of the city’s water department were placed on administrative leave, Loh said.

While the incident is under investigation, Loh said officials believe employees took the samples from exterior faucets, counter to EPA guidance requiring water samples be taken from the kitchen or bathroom.

“The concern about the employee involvement in the testing is that it resulted in the elevated levels, and when it was done properly following EPA guidance, the results came in under the EPA action level, a safe level,” Loh said.

But the sampling issues did not explain “why lead levels in the water were so extraordinarily high,” Valerie Baron, a senior attorney for National Resources Defense Council, said in a statement earlier this month.

“There is no reason to think water from a hose spigot will contain less lead than a kitchen or bathroom sink. Declaring ‘all clear’ based on these developments is irresponsible,” Baron said. “The city needs to follow the law and the science, provide at-the-tap-filters, and declare a state of emergency. Nothing less will do.”

While city officials can’t speak for the EPA, Loh said, exterior spigots are not meant to be used for drinking water. They are prone to sit uncirculated for longer periods, and on older homes, they are often connected to older pipes that usually contain lead or galvanized components.

“The longer water sits in those materials the more lead leaches into the water. That means water sitting in those pipes is likely to contain elevated levels of lead. And because the water does not get used regularly, the pipes are not properly exposed to the orthophosphate treatment that reduces corrosion of lead from pipes,” Loh said.

At the moment, city officials “think data and facts should drive any decision about a state of emergency,” Loh said. And the data and facts don’t support the designation of an emergency, he said.

Lead-based paint has made families sick for generations

Several residents told CNN they first learned their homes had lead service lines in August after receiving the notices, adding to the long-standing issues of lead contamination in the community.

Syracuse has a large concentration of homes built before 1978, when the federal government banned the use of lead-based paint in homes and residential buildings. For years, city and county officials have worked to identify and reduce the presence of lead paint to prevent poisoning.

Despite those measures, Medley said her sons developed lead poisoning nearly six years ago when they were 19 months old and lived at an apartment with lead paint. Over the years, she struggled to relocate to a lead-safe home, only to discover her current home has lead service lines, she said.

One of her sons now has mobility issues and a stutter that often makes him afraid to speak, she told CNN. 

“What would usually take two seconds to have a conversation, now, that turned into a five-minute conversation because the stutter has gotten just that bad,” Medley said at Tuesday’s rally.

Lead is toxic to humans, and there is no safe level of exposure, according to the CDC. Exposure is not typically apparent right away, but it can cause developmental delays in children. Initial symptoms of lead poisoning may include head, stomach and muscle aches, vomiting, anemia, irritability, fatigue and weight loss, the CDC says.

Medley and another Syracuse resident, Oceanna Fair, are leading the Syracuse-based group Families for Lead Freedom Now.

For years, Fair and her family have been vigilant and had their home tested and renovated to pass lead inspections because her brother and one of her granddaughters developed lead poisoning from lead paint. When tests found her youngest granddaughter had low levels of lead in her blood, she couldn’t figure out the source. She said she had no idea her home had lead service lines.

“We have been handing this baby cups of lead by the cup full,” Fair said.

“Every time she asked for a cup of water, every time we reconstituted her baby formula – which reminds you, is a child’s only source of nutrition from 0 to 6 months – every time we handed her a bottle, we were filling that bottle with lead infested water,” she said.

Syracuse city officials have not received reports of health impacts linked to the lead service lines, Loh said.

Millions are being spent to replace lead pipes

Last month, the EPA finalized a rule requiring drinking water systems nationwide to identify and replace lead pipes within 10 years. One of the Biden administration’s goals was to remove all lead pipes, regardless of the lead levels in tap or other drinking water samples.

While states have already made plans and inventories, the full lead pipe removal will be costly: Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, at least $15 billion will be allocated over five years to replace lead service lines, but advocates and federal officials have estimated it could cost tens of billions of dollars more.

In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced in September that Syracuse was awarded $12.7 million in state grants to identify and replace lead service lines. At the time, Hochul’s office said $22 million had already been spent through a state program to replace 3,439 lead service lines in the state.

In the next year, Syracuse plans to replace up to 3,000 lead service lines. On average, it costs about $10,000 per property to replace each one, Loh said.

Every property in the city is expected to receive a letter before the end of the year indicating whether its water service line is made of lead, copper or another material.

Loh, who says he lives in a home with lead service lines himself, said the city has been accelerating the pace of replacing the lead pipes and will continue to do so.

“We think people should know what their service line is made of, and they should be able to have the information to take the simple steps they can take to ensure that the water that they drink meets EPA standards,” Loh said.

CNN’s Caroll Alvarado contributed to this report.

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