SYRACUSE, New York — In October, the Natural Resources Defense Council released a report raising the alarm about staggering levels of lead in drinking water in some homes in the city of Syracuse.

Organizations such as the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and Families for Lead Freedom Now joined forces and decided to organize a rally on Tuesday, November 12 with concerned residents to raise the alarm about the city’s drinking water crisis and urge the city and the state. officials to take immediate steps to address the crisis. This includes urging Mayor Walsh to declare a state of emergency, ensuring all families have access to free water filters, and providing a plan to replace lead pipes and prioritize communities most affected by lead.

“We are the ones on the ground. “We are going through this, we are experiencing this, and our families are being negatively impacted,” said Families for Lead Freedom Now Co-Chair Oceanna Fair. “We want everyone to be informed about exactly what is happening with water and lead in general in their home.”

In July, 27 of 104 homes randomly tested in Syracuse were above the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) baseline lead action level of 15 parts per billion.

According to the NRDC, an environmental watchdog organization, ‘More than 14,000 homes in Syracuse use lead water pipes and are likely to have high levels of lead in the tap. Syracuse’s 70 parts per billion (ppb) level is much higher than the 27 ppb that independent testing found in Flint and the 57 ppb found in Newark, where the EPA took emergency action due to the severity of the problem.” .

The City of Syracuse Water Department has published a comprehensive inventory of water service lines throughout the city in accordance with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations. Residents can now easily search their address to determine the type of water service connected to their home. Sampling results announced in August showed exceedances at 27 of 104 properties sampled, which was considered an outlier from previous results. The new findings are comparable to previous sampling carried out over the last ten years.

The Department of Water also announced the results of EPA-required water sampling conducted in the second half of 2024. The results are below EPA’s current action level and at the agency’s reduced action level that will be implemented in three years.

The Water Department has committed to replacing more than 3,000 lead service lines over the next year, with a significant portion being funded with $22.8 million in state funds.

Nearly two weeks after lead levels in certain water samples were found well above safe limits, the Water Department says the samples may have been contaminated and two of the department’s employees were suspended for improperly testing. incorrect.

The public works committee now plans to hold a meeting to address concerns about lead water sampling.

Fair plans to attend and encourage others to do so as well.

“I think the community needs to come out and ask those tough questions and hold them accountable for how they plan to fix the problem,” Fair said. “We also want to make sure that these two city employees, who a lot of people are talking about, are not the scapegoat for this. We have a problem with lead service lines, there are 14,000 of them, we can’t just blame two city workers for this, we have to fix it.”

People in the community are encouraged to attend the rally tomorrow at City Hall. It starts at noon and ends at 1:00 p.m.

The public works meeting will be held Thursday also at City Hall in the Van B. Robinson Common Council Chambers on the third floor, beginning at 5:30 p.m.