One in five New Yorkers may be drinking lead-contaminated water, a new report has found.
Roughly 900,000 households – or 21% of the city’s residents – live in properties with lead or possible lead service lines, the pipes that provide city water to individual properties. Lead can leach into the water from the pipes as the water travels through them.
“There is no safe level of lead,” said Joan Matthews, senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, which co-authored the report as part of the New York City Coalition to End Lead Poisoning.
A potent neurotoxic metal, lead can cross the blood-brain barrier, causing a host of neurological problems in young children, including behavioral disorders and lower IQ levels. “Lead in drinking water can be a significant exposure path, particularly for infants who are drinking formula,” Matthews said. Adults can also suffer serious consequences from lead exposure, including high blood pressure and kidney damage.
Brooklyn and Manhattan are the boroughs with the highest estimated number of lead service lines, at 46% and 44% respectively. Nearly a quarter of all water lines in the Bronx are confirmed to have lead. At a neighborhood level, Staten Island’s Port Richmond community has the highest concentration of lead water lines in the entire city, at roughly 61%.
The new report is based on data from the city’s department of environmental protection (DEP), which includes a publicly accessible map of every property in the city. The report identified water lines as “possible lead” if there is no record or conflicting records about the material type.
New York City banned lead pipes in 1961 as public awareness of the dangers of lead exposure grew, and a national ban went into effect in 1986. But pre-existing lead service lines remain in use.
“New York City treats replacing lead service lines as something extra, as an add-on work, and instead they need to acknowledge that this work needs to be done to protect the public health,” Matthews said.
The New York City Coalition to End Lead Poisoning is hoping the report will push the city council to pass a law requiring the replacement of all lead pipes in the next decade.
The city of Newark, New Jersey, passed an ordinance in 2019 which helped replace 23,000 lead service lines in less than three years, under a city-funded program that covered the full cost.
“I’m hoping New York follows the good practices that Newark has done and does it in a very aggressive, nation-leading way,” said Josh Klainberg of the New York League of Conservation Voters, which also co-authored the report.