NYC Housing Officials Claim Water Is Lead-Free, But Won't Say Where They Did (and Didn't) Test

Photo by Steve Johnson

NEW YORK CITY, NY — How can the 400,000 low-income New Yorkers who live in city housing be sure their tap water isn't registering dangerous levels of lead?

For the past week, Patch has been pressing city officials for an answer to that question — to no avail.

New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) officials claimed last week that a recent series of tests showed NYCHA's tap water to be almost entirely lead-free.

However, they won't say where they tested, or how NYCHA residents can access past test results for their homes.

Last Monday, NYCHA head Shola Olatoye reportedly told a City Council committee that the department recently ran lead tests on the water in 175 randomly selected, vacant apartments within populated public-housing complexes “out of an abundance of caution."

According to Politico, she told the committee that:

In the random sampling of 175 vacant units, 13 showed elevated levels in water collected from “first draw,” as soon as the faucet was turned on. After a second draw and after letting the water run, only one unit showed elevated lead levels.

Olatoye's claims came amid a national lead-contamination crisis plaguing the drinking water of Flint, Michigan and the public-school system of Newark, New Jersey, among other locations.

Consuming water with high levels of lead can lead to severe health problems and developmental challenges.

Since Olatoye made her statement, Patch has sent multiple requests to NYCHA for more details on the tests she mentioned. We wanted to know where they took place and how high the lead levels were in each apartment.

Neither NYCHA — or the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which analyzed the water samples, or the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), which reviewed them — have answered either question.

NYCHA spokeswoman Zodet Negron confirmed that of the vacant apartments tested, 13 showed “elevated” lead levels “on the first draw” — meaning city employees drew the samples right as they turned on the tap.

She explained that the DEP examined vacant apartments, rather than occupied ones, because stagnant water is more likely to show lead contamination, if any exists at all.

“These apartments would not have lead under usual conditions of household water use,” when pipes are in constant use and hence regularly flushed, she said.

After the water had been allowed to run for one or two minutes, one sample still showed elevated lead levels, Negron said.

Negron declined to define the meaning of the term "elevated," though the federally accepted safety limit is 15 parts-per-billion, as set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

NYCHA also declined to provide the location of the contaminated apartment.

DOHMH spokesman Christopher Miller, for his part, deferred all questions about the tests to NYCHA and the DEP.

DEP spokesman Ted Timbers, too, left all commentary on the tests to NYCHA.

However, when asked generally about water tests in March, Timbers said the DEP "has a comprehensive water quality monitoring program that includes testing the water over 500,000 times each year, for more than 250 different types of contaminants, at various points" throughout the city's water system.

Patch also asked all three agencies how NYCHA residents would be able to access the results of past water tests conducted in their buildings or apartments.

Once again, the departments couldn't provide an answer.

Instead, Negron sent over a list of test results from 79 occupied NYCHA units examined between 2010 and 2015, though the tests themselves weren't dated. Fifteen of the tests took place in a Brooklyn NYCHA property.

The tests were conducted, she said, as part of the city’s Free Residential Testing Program, which lets any resident request a water test by calling 311 or filling out an online form.

The data set showed lead levels well below 15 parts-per-billion safety limit on both the first and second draws.

However, before sending over the list, Negron had claimed the city tested 100 apartments, more than the 79 shared.

Despite our difficulty obtaining information on lead levels in the water flowing through NYC's public-housing complexes, the city’s Department of Education (DOE) went live last month with a searchable database of past water tests conducted at NYC schools.

A spokesperson for the DOE did not respond to questions on how the site was put together. However, the site itself states that the DOE gathered data in collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the DOHMH.

Below is a list of the water tests NYCHA claims it conducted between 2010 and 2015 in its occupied Brooklyn properties. And below that is the spreadsheet provided to Patch by NYCHA and DEP — the only tangible information we were able to obtain over the course of our investigation.

[Note: after its initial publication, small changes were made to this article for clarity and accuracy.]

Development: Bushwick II (Groups A & C) (Bushwick)

First Draw: 0

Second Draw: 0

Development: Williams Plaza (Williamsburg)

First Draw: 0

Second Draw: 0

Development: Sumner (Bed-Stuy)

First Draw: 0

Second Draw: 0

Development: Berry (Williamsburg)

First Draw: 1

Second Draw: 0

Development: Lafayette Gardens (Bed-Stuy)

First Draw: 0

Second Draw: 0

Development: Pink Houses (City Line)

First Draw: 1

Second Draw: 0

Development: Breukelen (Canarsie)

First Draw: 0

Second Draw: 0

Development: Wyckoff Gardens (Boerum Hill)

Test 1 First Draw: 1

Test 1 Second Draw: 0

Test 2 Second Draw: 0

Test 2 Second Draw: 0

Development: Gravesend (Coney Island)

First Draw: 0

Second Draw: 0

Development: O’Dwyer Gardens (Coney Island)

First Draw: 0

Second Draw: 0

Development: 572 Warren Street (Boerum Hill)

First Draw: 0

Second Draw: 0

Development: Howard Avenue (Brownsville)

First Draw: 0

Second Draw: 0

Development: Coney Island (Coney Island)

First Draw: 0

Second Draw: 0

Development: Armstrong II (Bed-Stuy)

First Draw: 4

Second Draw: 2

Development: Sumner

First Draw: 0

Second Draw: 0