New York City Issues Water Warning For Lead

New York City has warned residents about lead found in the tap water of older homes, but officials stress the contamination is not in the city's reservoir system; it's in the plumbing of older homes.

"NYC Water is safe and healthy to drink," said Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Cas Holloway. "DEP carefully monitors water quality at the city's 19 upstate reservoirs and at nearly 1,000 sampling stations within the distribution system to determine if any contaminants, such as lead, are present. We conduct 500,000 tests each year, and they show that our water supply is virtually lead free.

But Holloway says some older buildings in the city have lead pipes, or pipes with lead fixtures, which can impact the tap water of private homes by introducing lead into water that has been sitting in the pipes for several hours or more.

Reducing the possibility of exposure to lead in drinking water, he says, is simple and inexpensive: run the tap for at least 30 seconds, until the water is noticeably colder, before drinking, cooking or making baby formula.

Run your tap

Holloway and Health Commissioner Thomas Farley have launched the Run Your Tap campaign, a public service campaign to educate city residents about simple precautions that can reduce potential exposure to lead from internal plumbing systems.

"Water is the healthiest of all beverages, and we encourage people to drink tap water," said Farley. "Still, the plumbing in some buildings can cause lead levels to rise when water sits in the pipes for long periods. The elevations seen in the city's recent tests have been too small to pose clear health threats " lead-based paint is the primary source of exposure in New York City, and we will continue to focus on it. But the best level of lead exposure is zero, especially for children and pregnant women. So remember to run your tap for half a minute, until it's cold, before drinking or cooking with water from the faucet."

As part of the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act, DEP conducts tap water testing at a sample of homes in New York City known to have lead service lines or lead solder in pipes. The results of this year's sampling show an increase in the number of samples above 15 parts per billion (ppb), the EPA standard for lead in water.

This year's test results show that 14 percent (30 samples) of 222 samples were elevated. Whenever more than 10 percent of the samples exceed 15 ppb, EPA requires public notification by the water supplier. New York City is not unique in experiencing this. Cities such as Boston, Washington D.C., Providence, and Portland, Oregon have all exceeded the action threshold in the past decade.

The city said it is investigating the cause of this increase. Drinking water is rarely the primary cause of lead poisoning, but elevated lead levels in water can increase a person's total lead exposure. Lead in tap water has declined since 1992, when DEP began anti-pipe corrosion water treatments.

Health Effects of Lead

Lead is a common metal found in the environment. In the past, lead has been used in pipes, plumbing fixtures and solder, paints, gasoline and other products. Lead may be found in air, water and soil from past uses of these products.

Lead poisoning is a preventable health problem and young children are at greatest risk, health experts say. Lead poisoning may cause learning and behavior problems as well as delays in growth and development in children.

In New York City and across the country, peeling lead paint in homes is the primary cause of lead poisoning. Landlords must inspect and safely repair peeling paint if a young child lives at a residence.

Blood lead levels in children have been dropping precipitously over the past several years. Since 1995, there has been a 93 percent drop in the number of children with elevated blood lead levels from 19,232 cases in 1995 to 1,387 cases in 2009.