Need to Get the Lead Out – Not Just Bottled Water

The city of Newark is being sued by a water group over the city’s elevated levels of lead in its tap water. The group wasn’t city officials to provide bottled water for its most vulnerable residents. In Newark alone, there are approximately 15,000 homes in which the water service lines connecting the property to the city’s main water line are lead. This has lead to lead problems in drinking water. In order to fix our lead problem, Governor Murphy took the first real step and signed A4120 (Pinto Marin) into law. The law will help remove lead pipes from New Jersey’s streets.

“Suing Newark to provide bottled water for residents is fine for right now but we need a long-term fix when it comes to lead. The Poland Spring solution is not a solution. Newark needs a long-term fix. We need to work with the New Jersey legislature to come up with the funding that will get rid of lead and help cities like Newark, Trenton and Camden where we find high levels of lead. The Legislature and Governor Murphy made the first real step to remove lead pipes from our streets by signing and passing a bill that will help us target old lead pipes to get rid of and replace them with stronger pipes,” said Jeff Tittel Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “We need to turn that awareness of clean drinking water into action and this law is a good start, but we need to do more to protect drinking water from lead in homes and schools. Thousands of children are diagnosed with lead poisoning in our state each year; over 3,500 a year across the state.”

Lead is a dangerous substance that can have serious health impacts, especially on children. In urban areas 25% of the water travelling through these pipes leak out. Newark, Paterson and Trenton have open-air finished reservoirs that contribute to the lead problems and they are not doing anything to enclose them.

“Since many of our reservoirs are open-air, we cannot add orthophosphates to the water to prevent lead from the pipes leaching into it. Whether it’s old pipes leaking out water or contaminates like lead threatening our children, it’s time for real action to protect our drinking water supply and infrastructure. Most importantly, we need to come up with long-term plans that include long-term funding sources,” said Tittel.

Last month, Governor Murphy signed A4120 into law. The legislation authorizes municipalities to levy special assessments, and issue bonds, to replace certain lead-contaminated water service lines. The full Assembly passed A2697 (McKeon) and  A4121 (Pinkin), both bills need to voted on the Senate floor.  Assemblyman McKeon’s bill requires public water systems to compile, and submit to DEP, lead service line inventories. Assemblywoman Pinkin’s bill  requires DOE and DCF to establish online reporting systems for schools and child care centers to report lead testing results. The legislature is also currently working on a funding to fix lead problems in our water.

“We have incidents of contaminated drinking water across the state, especially in places like Newark, Paterson, and Camden. This is at least a $8 billion problem that needs to be fixed immediately to keep the lead out of our schools. Whether it’s old pipes leaking out water or contaminates like lead threatening our children, it’s time for real action to protect our drinking water supply and infrastructure. Most importantly, we need to come up with long-term plans that include long-term funding sources,” said Tittel. “We’ve been involved with this issue for over 30 years. We need the Legislature and Governor Murphy to keep the momentum on fixing our state’s lead problems.”