This article needs to be updated.(December 2019) |
Date | 2016[1] – present |
---|---|
Location | Newark, New Jersey, U.S. |
Coordinates | 40°43′N74°10′W / 40.72°N 74.17°W |
Type | Water pollution Lead contamination |
The Newark, New Jersey water crisis began in 2016 when elevated lead levels were observed in multiple Newark Public Schools district schools throughout the city. [2]
Multiple water studies were conducted by both federal agencies, such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and non-profit groups. [3] The lead levels exceeded the limit of 15 parts per billion set by the Safe Drinking Water Act. [4] As a result, the EPA ordered the City of Newark to provide bottled water and filters to affected customers. [5] As of January 2020, more than 200,000 residents were affected by the elevated levels of lead. [6]
Much of the drinking water in Newark, and Northern New Jersey in general, comes from reservoirs. [7] Drinking water then is processed through water treatment plants to the final destinations throughout the region. [8] The water pipes that connect the main pipes to homes and businesses were lined with lead along with other chemicals. [9] The water destroyed the lead-lined pipes, causing the lead to leak into the water supply. [10]
The management of the city's water safety plan is under the jurisdiction of the Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Corporation (NWCDC), [11] under the direction of a board appointed by the mayor of Newark. [12] The New Jersey State Comptroller released a report in 2014 detailing widespread corruption throughout the agency. [13] In early 2016, multiple agency officials were arrested and charged with accepting bribes. [14]
Lead poisoning often occurs with no obvious symptoms, it frequently goes unrecognized. Lead poisoning can cause learning disabilities, behavioral problems, and, at very high levels, seizures, coma, and even death. No safe blood lead level has been identified. [15] Pregnant women and children are most at risk. Lead exposure has been on the rise in New Jersey, especially in children. The highest numbers come from Newark in 2017, where 281 children between six months old and 26 months old tested in the city showed high lead levels in their blood. [16]
Newark addresses the issue of elevated blood lead levels in children through several means, has been allotted and continues to seek grants from governmental and non-governmental sources. In the past decade, Newark has established and locally administers the State's only Lead-Safe Houses. The Lead-Safe Houses are used to relocate residents who have a child with an Elevated blood lead level (10 μg/dL or greater) when the family has no other temporary lead-safe housing alternatives. [17]
State and federal environment officials said that lead levels in multiple Newark Public Schools buildings were higher than the federal limit in March 2016. [18] The trade union representing Newark public school teachers and the New Jersey Sierra Club said that the school leadership knew of the lead problem in the drinking water. [19]
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection mandated cities and towns to test the water supply twice a year. [20] A report published by the City of Newark stated the city violated the EPA's limit of lead levels in the drinking water. [21]
In February 2018, engineering company CDM Smith said in an email to the City of Newark stated their prevention of lead pipes dissolving into the water system "has not been effective". [22] Subsequently, Newark distributed Pur water filters to affective residents. [23] During the height of the water crisis, Newark residents were able to receive 2 cases of 24 water bottles with proof of their address. [24]
In August 2019, the city government received $120 million in funds to replace lead drinking water pipes throughout the city. [25]
According to new tests conducted by the state of New Jersey, lead levels have dropped. [26] [27]
By August 2021, almost all of the lead water pipes in Newark had been replaced with copper ones, solving much of the water crisis problem. Mayor Ras Baraka continues to encourage Newark residents to trust the city and get their water tested, since it is free, to keep the water crisis from occurring again. [28]
Several news outlets, including The New York Times , compared the water crisis to the one in Flint, Michigan. [20] The Natural Resources Defense Council sued the Newark city government in 2018, saying the city has violated federal and state regulations regarding lead levels in drinking water. [29] Mayor of Newark wrote a letter to the President of the United States Donald Trump, asking for federal assistance and funds to help repair and rebuild the water infrastructure. [30]
Introduced in September 2019, the Water Infrastructure Funding Transfer Act was passed by the United States Senate. [31] It was sponsored by New Jersey Senator Cory Booker. [32] The law allows the transfer of funds from the federal water fund to states. [33] It was signed into law on September 27, 2019. [34]
In March 2019, Newark announced the Lead Service Line Replacement Program, which aimed to remove all 18,000 lead pipes throughout the water system. [35] [36] More than 38,000 water filters were distributed to city residents, [37] in addition to bottled water. [38] A November 2019 report released by the Newark city government said that "97.5% of the filters reduced lead to 10 parts-per-billion (ppb) or below." [39]
Newark is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, the county seat of Essex County, and a principal city of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 311,549. The Population Estimates Program calculated a population of 304,960 for 2023, making it the 66th-most populous municipality in the nation.
Water purification is the process of removing undesirable chemicals, biological contaminants, suspended solids, and gases from water. The goal is to produce water that is fit for specific purposes. Most water is purified and disinfected for human consumption, but water purification may also be carried out for a variety of other purposes, including medical, pharmacological, chemical, and industrial applications. The history of water purification includes a wide variety of methods. The methods used include physical processes such as filtration, sedimentation, and distillation; biological processes such as slow sand filters or biologically active carbon; chemical processes such as flocculation and chlorination; and the use of electromagnetic radiation such as ultraviolet light.
The Hackensack River is a river, approximately 45 miles (72 km) long, in the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, emptying into Newark Bay, a back chamber of New York Harbor. The watershed of the river includes part of the suburban area outside New York City just west of the lower Hudson River, which it roughly parallels, separated from it by the New Jersey Palisades. It also flows through and drains the New Jersey Meadowlands. The lower river, which is navigable as far as the city of Hackensack, is heavily industrialized and forms a commercial extension of Newark Bay.
Cory Anthony Booker is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from New Jersey since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Booker is the first African-American U.S. senator from New Jersey. He was the 38th mayor of Newark from 2006 to 2013, and served on the Municipal Council of Newark for the Central Ward from 1998 to 2002.
Kenneth Allen Gibson was an American politician of the Democratic Party who was the 36th mayor of Newark, New Jersey from 1970 to 1986. He was the first African American mayor of a major city in the Northeastern United States.
The Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) is a United States federal regulation that limits the concentration of lead and copper allowed in public drinking water at the consumer's tap, as well as limiting the permissible amount of pipe corrosion occurring due to the water itself. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) first issued the rule in 1991 pursuant to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). The EPA promulgated the regulations following studies that concluded that copper and lead have an adverse effect on individuals. The LCR limits the levels of these metals in water through improving water treatment centers, determining copper and lead levels for customers who use lead plumbing parts, and eliminating the water source as a source of lead and copper. If the lead and copper levels exceed the "action levels", water suppliers are required to educate their consumers on how to reduce exposure to lead. In a 2005 report EPA stated that the LCR requirements had been effective in 96 percent of systems serving at least 3,300 people.
Water supply and sanitation in the United States involves a number of issues including water scarcity, pollution, a backlog of investment, concerns about the affordability of water for the poorest, and a rapidly retiring workforce. Increased variability and intensity of rainfall as a result of climate change is expected to produce both more severe droughts and flooding, with potentially serious consequences for water supply and for pollution from combined sewer overflows. Droughts are likely to particularly affect the 66 percent of Americans whose communities depend on surface water. As for drinking water quality, there are concerns about disinfection by-products, lead, perchlorates, PFAS and pharmaceutical substances, but generally drinking water quality in the U.S. is good.
In the United States, public drinking water is governed by the laws and regulations enacted by the federal and state governments. Certain ordinances may also be created at a more local level. The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) is the principal federal law. The SDWA authorizes the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to create and enforce regulations to achieve the SDWA goals.
Drinking water quality in the United States is generally safe. In 2016, over 90 percent of the nation's community water systems were in compliance with all published U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards. Over 286 million Americans get their tap water from a community water system. Eight percent of the community water systems—large municipal water systems—provide water to 82 percent of the US population. The Safe Drinking Water Act requires the US EPA to set standards for drinking water quality in public water systems. Enforcement of the standards is mostly carried out by state health agencies. States may set standards that are more stringent than the federal standards.
While performing research into premature pipe corrosion for the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) in 2001, Marc Edwards, an expert in plumbing corrosion, discovered lead levels in the drinking water of Washington, D.C., at least 83 times higher than the accepted safe limit. He found that the decision to change from chlorine to chloramine as a treatment chemical had caused the spike in lead levels. The contamination has left thousands of children with lifelong health risks and led to a re-evaluation of the use of monochloramine in public drinking-water systems
Marc Edwards is a civil engineering/environmental engineer and the Charles Edward Via Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech. An expert on water treatment and corrosion, Edwards's research on elevated lead levels in Washington, DC's municipal water supply gained national attention, changed the city's recommendations on water use in homes with lead service pipes, and caused the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to admit to publishing a report so rife with errors that a congressional investigation called it "scientifically indefensible." He is considered one of the world's leading experts in water corrosion in home plumbing, and a nationally recognized expert on copper corrosion. He is also one of the whistleblowers in the Flint water crisis, along with Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha.
Ras Jua Baraka is an American educator, author, and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, Baraka is the 40th and current mayor of Newark, New Jersey. First elected in the 2014 election, he was sworn into office on May 13, 2014, and was reelected in 2018 and 2022.
Luis A. Quintana is an American politician who served as Councilmember-at-Large of the Municipal Council of Newark, New Jersey, first elected in 1994. He served as Mayor of Newark from November 2013 to July 2014, after which he was re-elected to his council seat.
The 2014 Newark mayoral election took place in Newark, the most populous city in New Jersey, on May 13, 2014. The race was characterized as a contest between two candidates, Ras Baraka and Shavar Jeffries, both from Newark's South Ward. Elections for all seats on the nine member Municipal Council of Newark also took place. Luis A. Quintana, who had become Mayor of Newark following the resignation of Cory Booker, did not seek the seat.
Mulberry Commons is an urban square and public park in Newark, New Jersey that opened in 2019. The Mulberry Commons Pedestrian Bridge broke ground in 2023.
The Flint water crisis was a public health crisis that started in 2014 after the drinking water for the city of Flint, Michigan was contaminated with lead and possibly Legionella bacteria. In April 2014, during a financial crisis, state-appointed emergency manager Darnell Earley changed Flint's water source from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to the Flint River. Residents complained about the taste, smell, and appearance of the water. Officials failed to apply corrosion inhibitors to the water, which resulted in lead from aging pipes leaching into the water supply, exposing around 100,000 residents to elevated lead levels. A pair of scientific studies confirmed that lead contamination was present in the water supply. The city switched back to the Detroit water system on October 16, 2015. It later signed a 30-year contract with the new Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) on November 22, 2017.
Water contamination in Lawrence and Morgan Counties, Alabama, revolves around the presence of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) in the water supply. After the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released new health advisories in March 2016, there was concern over health risks of the levels of PFOA and PFOS present. The responses of different government officials, agencies, and companies raise questions as to whether or not there was any environmental injustice involved.
Shanique Davis Speight is an American Democratic Party politicians who represents the 29th Legislative District in the New Jersey General Assembly since 2018, succeeding Blonnie R. Watson, who chose not to run for reelection. Speight has served in the Assembly as the Deputy Parliamentarian since 2022.
Newark Riverfront Park is a park and promenade being developed in phases along the Passaic River in Newark, New Jersey, United States. It is part of the Essex County Park System. The park, expected to be 3 miles (4.8 km) long and encompass 30.5 acres (12.3 ha), is being created from brownfield and greyfield sites along the river, which itself is a Superfund site due to decades of pollution. It will follow the river between the Ironbound section along Raymond Boulevard and Downtown Newark along McCarter Highway. Announced in 1999, a groundbreaking took place in 2008, and the first phase of the park opened in 2012. It was the first time residents of the largest city in New Jersey have ever had public access to the river. Other segments of the park have subsequently opened, while others are being developed. The East Coast Greenway uses paths and roads along the park.
A lead service line is a pipe made of lead which is used in potable water distribution to connect a water main to a user's premises.
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