Inside the lead water testing that’s sparked outrage, confusion for Syracuse residents

A second round of lab tests shows the problem with lead in Syracuse’s drinking water isn’t as bad as originally thought.
But the whole exercise exposes the gaps in the testing process and the confusion of residents who thought for a minute that their drinking water was dangerous.
Residents are asking: Is my water safe to drink or not?
Syracuse officials have released new test results to back up their claim that levels of lead in drinking water meet acceptable EPA levels.
But they have not yet released evidence to back up their theory about why tests in the first half of the year showed outrageously high levels at some homes. That is still under investigation, they say.
Residents interviewed Thursday say they are frustrated and confused.
“What do they want us to do and how long are we doing it?” asked Emily Cattarin, whose DeWitt Street apartment tested alarmingly high for lead in September but within safe levels in October.
Earlier this year, the city’s voluntary water sampling at 104 homes showed 27 had levels above the national safety standard of 15 parts per billion.
Between August and October, the city went back for a second round. They tested another set of 131 homes with lead service lines. This time, only five properties exceeded federal standards.
The second round of testing included 23 of the 27 homes that failed in the first half of the year. Only one still exceeds the federal level, according to records obtained by Syracuse.com through a Freedom of Information Law request.
City officials say that is enough to prove that testing in the first half of the year was an anomaly. They believe results were skewed because two water department employees drew samples from garden hoses instead of kitchen sinks and bathrooms, as recommended.
They have not said any more about that investigation, including how many homes these employees visited.
To rebuild trust with the community, city officials are hoping to hire an outside contractor to handle water testing in the future. That would begin in January.
Syracuse’s high lead levels won the attention of national environmental activists – some of the same people who successfully sued Flint, Michigan and Newark, New Jersey.
The Natural Resources Defense Council has pushed city officials to release records to support the claim that Syracuse’s drinking water is safe to drink.
That group, other activists and residents are sure to question the most recent results.
Still, Corey Driscoll Dunham, the city’s chief operations officer, said the group’s comparisons to the crisis in Flint, Michigan are unfair.
In Flint, the city switched its water supply and failed to treat it correctly. Syracuse has not changed its water sources or the chemicals used to treat the water. Lead comes from old service lines and bad plumbing, which every city in America is trying to manage with replacement lines and corrosion chemicals, she said.
The Onondaga County Health Department has confirmed that no children have tested with high levels of lead in their blood at the 27 homes that had high levels of lead in drinking water samples in the first half of the year.
“We say it. The county health commissioner says it,” Dunham said. “The water is safe. It is free from lead. It’s not Flint. The water itself is not contaminated.”
Syracuse.com reporters visited 20 houses Thursday where water tested high for lead either earlier in the year or through home tests the city handed out this fall. Many residents said they were confused and were surprised to be notified earlier this year that their drinking water could be dangerous.
Some said they received notices in the mail alerting them of high levels of lead in their homes. Others said they opted to have tests done after tests in other houses came back high. Many received Brita filters from the city.
They said they wished they knew how concerned they really needed to be.
Cattarin, who has lived in the city for seven years and moved into her North Side apartment earlier this year, said the city gave her a Brita pitcher and two additional filters after her water tested at 17.3 parts per billion. But they didn’t give filters to the tenants of her upstairs apartment.
“I know what this could mean. I know that it’s bad,” she said. “But I’m also like, have I just been drinking high lead levels for seven years? Like, why today?”
She started filling her bottle before leaving work to drink at home throughout the night.
She has also been filling her dog’s water dish with filtered water after a veterinarian said the water could be unsafe for pets.
The city sent Cattarin the results of her second test on Thursday. The test came back 8.4 ppb, according to the note, which also said the city was “happy to report” that Cattarin’s water was now safe to drink.
Liam Rodewald, a SUNY ESF student who lives in the Westcott neighborhood, said he and his roommates received a notice last summer that their house’s water had more than five times the amount of lead that the EPA says is safe to drink.
Rodewald’s dad installed a larger filter underneath the sink that he said would be better at catching the lead. The filter cost between $100 and $150, he said.
A few months after that test, their landlord told them that the test was an “administrative failure” and that they should disregard it. Since then, they’ve received two more at-home tests from the city, but never learned what the results were.
“We’ve called so many times and have not heard responses,” said Rodewald, who is a senior at SUNY ESF. “It just goes to voicemail.”
A Syracuse.com reporter gave him the results.
The water in Rodewald’s house tested at 5.1 ppb in October then 5.3 ppb in November after testing at 77.3 ppb in June, according to records obtained by syracuse.com.
While he was glad to see that his water was safer than what the original test suggested, Rodewald said he wishes the city would’ve been more transparent with him and everyone else in his neighborhood.
“The city should be consistent with their response to everyone,” Rodewald said. “I feel like some people are getting one response, some people are getting another response, and then no one’s following up with what’s going on.”
Syracuse Water Commissioner Robert Brandt said he has visited each house where the water exceeded acceptable levels. He said the city has followed the EPA guidelines to notify residents and has gone beyond requirements to distribute free filters. The city has also put a plan in place to replace lead service lines on a faster track than required, he said.
City and county health officials plan to announce today how they will roll out the distribution of the first 6,000 free pitchers with water filters, first to homes with children and pregnant women.
Here is what Syracuse.com learned about testing:
The city does not choose homes to test based on a random sample. Officials do not choose homes based on the age of the home, whether it is a rental or owner-occupied or in good or bad condition.
It is so difficult to find homes to test twice a year that the city relies on volunteers. Because of publicity around testing in the first half of the year, the second round of testing had more volunteers than a typical sample. The most recent sample even included the homes of eight people who work in city government, including Greg Loh, the mayor’s chief policy officer.
EPA guidelines do not require random samples, according to Erik Olson, senior strategic director for health for the NRDC.
EPA guidelines require cities with more than 100,000 people to test 100 homes. Half of the homes must have a lead service line or indoor copper plumbing with lead solder installed between 1983 and 1986. The city goes beyond that and tests only homes with lead service lines, officials said.
The rules also require the city to test the same homes every year – a set that should have been identified 30 years ago, he said.
If they are denied access to the same homes, they can test a nearby home that has the same history of lead contaminated lines, he said.
The city has released an interactive map showing which homes it knows have lead pipes. However, the status of thousands of homes remains unknown.
The city is asking residents to fill out a short survey to determine whether their service line needs to be replaced. (The questionnaire requires uploaded pictures of a residence’s water meter and service line.)
Contact Michelle Breidenbach | [email protected] | 315-470-3186.