Newark Water Showing ‘Steady Decrease’ In Lead, Officials Say

NEWARK, NJ — Newark officials say the city is making “steady” progress on its much-maligned lead water crisis.

On Tuesday, Mayor Ras Baraka and Kareem Adeem, acting director of the city’s Water and Sewer Utilities, announced that a round of testing in December shows one of the city’s solutions to fighting the lead contamination – introducing orthophosphate as a new method of corrosion control – is working as expected.

The samples were taken from pipes where the water has been stagnant for hours, which will make lead levels read higher, Adeem said.

“Ninety percent of the water we tested has fallen very close to the acceptable federal level of 15 parts per billion,” Adeem said. “As of December, our parts per billion were down to 17.3 in 90 percent of the samples.”

The December reading is a 74 percent drop from last February and the decline in lead levels has been dropping steadily since May, when the new orthophosphate anti-corrosion program began, officials stated.

Adeem said the effectiveness of the orthophosphate is gradual, so city officials expect to see the lead levels continue to drop.

A Newark city spokesperson previously said that Belleville, Bloomfield and Nutley – which purchase water from Newark – will all benefit from the orthophosphate treatment. Towns that buy Newark's water on an emergency basis, such as East Orange and South Orange, were also expected to benefit.

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• See related article: Newark's New Way Of Fighting Lead Will Benefit Nearby Essex Towns

WATER FILTERS: ’99 PERCENT EFFECTIVE’

On Tuesday, Adeem said that there is an extra layer of protection via the free water filters the city has been distributing to residents.

The filters have been “99 percent effective” in the removal of lead to minimal levels of one or two part per billion… the same levels found in bottled water, he said.

Newark officials temporarily handed out free bottled water to residents in the Pequannock service area after the U.S. EPA cautioned that the filters may not be working. After the city, the EPA and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection conducted a "much more comprehensive" follow-up test – which took 1,700 samples from 300 homes – officials announced that when properly installed, the filters are 99 percent effective when used in combination with flushing for at least five minutes.

• See related article: Court Rules Against Newark Activists In Battle Over Bottled Water
• See related article: No More Bottled Water In Newark, Except For Most Vulnerable

LEAD SERVICE LINES: 25 PERCENT REPLACED

In the meantime, the city continues its to replace 18,720 privately owned lead service lines at an “unprecedented pace,” offering the normally expensive repairs at no cost to homeowners, officials said.

Since kicking off the $134 million dollar campaign – which has seen financial support from federal, state and county sources – the city has replaced 4,556 lines, more than 25 percent of the total and a rate of roughly 85 per day.

• See related article: Newark Replacing Lead Pipes In Homes; 800 Done, 17000 To Go
• See related article: Worry, Relief In Newark As City Replaces Pipes (VIDEO)
• See related article: NJ Suburb Follows Newark's Lead, Replaces Pipes To Protect Water

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