A Fight for Clean Water in Newark: How Citizens Took Action When Their Government Failed to Ensure Good Water Quality (2016-2021)

           Unbeknownst to the population of Newark, a microscopic catastrophe began sneaking its way into their homes in 2016. It lay in waiting and strikes when they least expected it; when they were drinking water. This catastrophe is lead. Lead began to amass in large quantities in Newark’s water supply. Years went by with the lead crisis gradually growing. The citizens of Newark began to get worried as the government continued to neglect their water systems, so they decide to stand up and fight for their own solution.

            In 2016 the first signs of lead contamination in the Newark water system appeared in schools. In the following year, lead was officially reported to be above the federal limit in over 1/5^th of the places tested in Newark, and by the end of 2018, lead concentration in water continued to grow. While this is alarming news, what may be more alarming is how little the Newark government did to try to fix this issue. Even until the end of 2018, the government was still not able to create a plan to reduce the amount of lead in their water. Thus, the people had to take action. People started to realize the seriousness of this issue and did what they could to fight for their right to clean water, such as sending letters to government officials and announcing their intention to sue the state and city officials for violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act.[1] The Newark citizen’s fight for their health and safety was an integral part to fixing their water contamination issue.

What didn’t the Newark government do to prevent the lead levels to rise to such heights? What did the people do to push the government to fix the lead concentration issue? And what did the government finally do to fix the lead concentration issue? This paper will focus on how the efforts of Newark citizens and the government Agencies pushed the government into fixing the lead problem in Newark.

            To fully understand this issue it is necessary to explain an introduction about lead contamination, an explanation of the lead contamination history in Newark, a comparison of Newark to a town with a similar issue and demographic, an analysis of an image of the protests, and why the government is responsible for letting this situation escalate.

            Lead contamination is when microscopic particles of lead are leached out of water treatment facilities most commonly, from lead service lines. Lead service lines are lead pipes that run from the city’s main water supply into residential homes. These lines were mainly used for their durability and flexibility. Since lead pipes are durable and flexible, they were ideal to use during the 1900s, since they only had shovels and pickaxes to dig holes for these pipes to go into. Nowadays, we have heavy, intricate, and modern machinery that can dig and place copper or PVC service lines which are very rigid and inflexible, don’t degrade easily, and also don’t leach lead into community water pipes. Now all pipes that are used for water systems are PVC or copper.[2]

            Lead service lines are usually made completely out of lead, so after years of usage these pipes start to degrade. As these pipes degrade, lead starts to seep out from the inside walls of the pipe which end up in the water system. Some copper pipes have lead soldering that connects the pipes together, and that too can become corroded and seep out lead. Lead is an incredibly harmful chemical to ingest, especially for children. The NRDC describes the harmful effects of lead in this quote on their research on lead link, “Even moderate to low levels of lead exposure—which might cause subtle symptoms—can still produce serious harm. Health effects include hearing loss, anemia, hypertension, kidney impairment, immune system dysfunction, and toxicity to the reproductive organs. Low levels of exposure can interfere with thought processes and lower children’s IQ and also cause attention and behavioral problems—all of which affect lifetime learning.”[3] As you can tell from this quote, lead is a very harmful chemical and is a serious issue that should be treated as a top priority to fix in communities.

            In 2016 thirty Newark Public Schools report lead levels of over 15 parts per billion (ppb). 15 ppb is the federal action level of lead concentration in water that when exceeded a city is legally required to take action and attempt to fix the problem. In 2017 Newark begins monitoring their water system for lead every six months. “Over this first six-month monitoring period, the federal action level of 15 ppb is exceeded in at least 22 percent of the drinking water samples. Ten percent of the samples exceed 27 ppb—nearly twice the action level. At least six Newark homes test above 50 ppb, and one tests at 127 ppb” as reported by the Newark Resource Defense Council (NRDC). During this time the Newark government fails to submit a lead service line inventory count and 10 official groups related to water quality, including the NRDC, send letters to the Newark government stating that the government “failed to respond comprehensively to lead contamination of its drinking water.”  By 2018 the third 6-month lead monitoring period begins, and the lead crisis is still growing. In early 2018 the NRDC and Newark Education Workers Caucus (NEW Caucus) announce their intention to sue the Newark government for continuing to violate the federal safe drinking water act, which dictates that lead concentration in water should not exceed 15 ppb.[4] Also, people start protesting in the streets of Newark as they realize the government isn’t doing enough to fix the problem. The Newark Government also tries a new corrosion control method for their lead pipes that might take months to start working.[5] In the summer of 2018 the issue, and people’s protests, start to escalate to new heights. The NRDC and NEW Caucus take the Newark Government to court, Newark enters its fourth 6 month monitoring period, the Newark government submits a lead service line report that leaves out at least 5000 buildings, a preliminary research study is filed by CDM Smith that shows that “the highest lead levels occur near or in lead service lines”, and due to pressure from the NRDC and NEW Caucus, the Newark government announces their plans to give out water filters to residents in certain parts of Newark. But by December of 2018 the problem continues to grow as the filters did not fix the problem. The NRDC demands water bottles be sent to Newark citizens, especially to children and pregnant women. In 2019 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an independent agency that works with the federal government, sent warnings to the Newark Government advising them to distribute water bottles to the public as the filters were not enough. In August of 2019, after five 6-month monitoring periods, the Newark Government finally makes a plan to solve the Newark lead water crisis. The solution is to replace over 18,000 lead service lines that are transporting water into Newark homes, schools, and businesses.[6] As of August 11^th, 2021 two years after the start of the Lead Service Line Replacement (LSLR), nearly all of its 23,000 lead service lines have been replaced with copper pipes.[7] And as of July 20^th, 2020, the rated amount of lead concentration in water has gone down to 17 ppb.[8] Since July 2020 a lot more pipes were replaced and so the lead concentration in water has surely gone down since then.

            Was Newark’s solution to their lead crisis too slow? Is there an example of a place that had a lead crisis and handled it better? To answer these questions, I’ll compare Newark to Georgetown, Delaware who also got their lead service lines replaced. To help compare the demographic information I’ll include a table comparing the demographics of Georgetown and Newark.[9]

Table 1: Demographic Comparison between Newark and Georgetown

(Percentile stats relative to the US)

            Georgetown, Delaware is ranked pretty similarly in percentile for many negative statistics in comparison to Newark. They both have a very high percentile of less than high school education and linguistically isolated households (households where all individuals aged 14 and up speak a non-English language and don’t speak English very well) But quite unlike Newark, the Delaware Government handled their lead water crisis as it happened and in the end, it is a lesser known lead contamination crisis in the US. In 2009 Georgetown had 45 lead pipe leakages plague their town. In response, the Delaware government spent over $100,000 on emergency repairs. This led the community to replace over 400 lead service lines and resulted in a major reduction of lead in their water systems. [10]

This was a sign posted outside of St. Lucy’s Church where the Newark Water Coalition (NWC) was distributing cases of water bottles on Saturdays during the lead water crisis in Newark. Government agencies begin handing out cases of water bottles as a temporary method to quench the citizens thirst as lead is poisoning their water supply. This image shows that Newark lead levels have risen to incredibly heights and the Newark water groups and it’s citizens are working together to survive this crisis.

This image was taken in June of 2018 during the lead water crisis in Newark. This image was published when it was included in a newspaper article by Marisa Lati for The Washington Post newspaper in October of 2019. This article was meant to give a background to the Newark lead water crisis and explain the peoples protests. This article was intended for readers who want to learn more about the Newark lead water crisis and the protests surrounding it.

The first aspect of this image I want to discuss is the red cloth sign that’s clipped onto a portable metal barrier. The sign says “Newark is being poisoned Get the lead out” in all caps. This sign seems like the kind of thing that people would bring with them to a protest since it’s very large and has strong attention-grabbing words. It calls for anyone who is reading this message to action to help get lead of out Newark water, turning Newark’s issue into every person’s issue. This shows the people working hard to survive the crisis.

The second aspect of this image that is interesting is the small carboard message board clipped to the upper left corner of the sign. It says “Water is life, this way. Newark Water Coalition.” This sign is leading Newark citizens to water and is sponsored by the NWC. This seems to be how the people who put the red sign up are helping Newark citizens avoid the poisonous lead water that’s being fed into their homes. The NWC is helping Newark citizens get through this crisis.

The third aspect of this image that is notable is the yellow box behind the sign. It says, “planet aid, a .org website, Clothes and” I believe the next word is Shoes, and then on the bottom in small text I see the word collect and I believe it’s part of the word collection. From this alone I assumed it was a clothes and shoes collection box that people could donate to. This strikes me oddly, as now not only shoes and clothes are valuable things for people to donate and distribute to those who need it, but now water is a valuable resource that needs to be collected and distributed to Newark citizens who have nothing else to drink.

This image is an example of a moment in time during the Newark water crisis when water bottles were being distributed to the public as a 2 year late relief effort of the government to help Newark citizens survive. It also shows citizens helping each other find clean water and encouraging each other to join the fight to get the lead out of their water systems. This also shows how the NWC, a Newark government agency for clean water helped Newark citizens survive the crisis by distributing clean water bottles.

Newark’s lead water crisis was the result of decades of neglect of Newark for their water systems. Many people will remember the ignorance of the Newark government, including Sabre Bee, a member of the Newark Water Coalition (NWC) who stated that Newark Government used “Every little squiggle space they could find and relieve themselves of accountability.” Also, a New York Times investigation found that city officials “brushed aside warnings and allowed the system to deteriorate, while state and federal regulators often did not intervene forcefully enough to help prevent the crisis.” [11] Newark was over the federal action limit for lead contamination for over three years and for the majority of it they fought tooth and nail to not do anything about it. Now once they’ve started to fix it they call themselves honorable, and a success story. It seems ironic to me.

Newark citizens are still being threatened by a microscopic catastrophe, but now it is no longer something that they are unaware of. Through the efforts of many Newark agencies and protests by people the lead catastrophe became known and something that is a lot less scary than it was just a few years ago. Newark citizens are more aware of dangers than can lurk in their water and they know of people they can go to if they suspect they’re having issues with their water, such as the NRDC, or the NWC. They also know not to trust their government, as they saw how long the government let the issue drag on even though they were aware of it, and also while being pressured to fix it. From this incident, we can learn that lead contamination is a very serious issue, that we should monitor our water for harmful contaminants that may be lurking inside, and that we have resources and agencies available to help us to check our water or to request help in case we find something is off. We are not alone in our quest for clean water.

[1] Information for this paragraph was obtained from a very detailed timeline; “Newark Drinking Water Crisis.” https://www.nrdc.org/newark-drinking-water-crisis

[2] The commentary on this official Newark’s mayor Bloomberg YouTube video provided the information from this paragraph. https://youtu.be/V8hEYFpYsv4

[3] This is an article from the NRDC explaining how lead gets into sinks at home and also the harmful effects of lead on the human body; “Causes and Effects of Lead in Water.” https://www.nrdc.org/stories/causes-and-effects-lead-water#ej.

[4] The information from this lengthy paragraph comes from an extremely well organized and interactive timeline that is featured in the following website; https://www.nrdc.org/newark-drinking-water-crisis.

[5] A Washington Post online newspaper article with information on protests that occurred during the Newark water crisis; “Toxic Lead, Scared Parents and Simmering Anger: A Month inside a City without Clean Water.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/10/03/toxic-lead-scared-parents-simmering-anger-month-inside-city-without-clean-water/.

[6] Continuation of endnote 4; https://www.nrdc.org/newark-drinking-water-crisis.

[7] This article is the most recent article I could find that had the current number of lead service line’s replaced. “’Hallelujah Moment’: How This City Overcame Its Lead Crisis.” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/11/nyregion/newark-lead-pipes-drinking-water.html.

[8] This information was found on one of the last slides of the timeline; “Newark Drinking Water Crisis.” https://www.nrdc.org/newark-drinking-water-crisis

[9] This is an interactive map that lets you search for the demographic information of any location in the US and compare it to all locations in the US. I used this to find demographic information for Georgetown, Delaware and Newark, NJ;“EPA’s Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool.” https://ejscreen.epa.gov/mapper/.

[10] This is a case study by the Lead Service Line Replacement (LSLR) website and their case study on Georgetown, DE. I used this to compare it’s lead crisis to Newark’s lead crisis; “LSLR Financing Case Study: Georgetown, DE.” https://www.epa.gov/dwreginfo/lslr-financing-case-study-georgetown-de.  

[11] Used these direct quotes from this article; “’Hallelujah Moment’: How This City Overcame Its Lead Crisis.” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/11/nyregion/newark-lead-pipes-drinking-water.html.

Bibliography:

1. Anselm, Bryan. “Newark Drinking Water Crisis.” NRDC, 10 Feb. 2021, https://www.nrdc.org/newark-drinking-water-crisis.

2. Armstrong, Kevin. “’Hallelujah Moment’: How This City Overcame Its Lead Crisis.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 Aug. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/11/nyregion/newark-lead-pipes-drinking-water.html.

3. “EPA’s Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, https://ejscreen.epa.gov/mapper/.

4.”LSLR Financing Case Study: Georgetown, DE.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.epa.gov/dwreginfo/lslr-financing-case-study-georgetown-de.

5. Iati, Marisa. “Toxic Lead, Scared Parents and Simmering Anger: A Month inside a City without Clean Water.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 3 Oct. 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/10/03/toxic-lead-scared-parents-simmering-anger-month-inside-city-without-clean-water/.

6. Mulvihill, Keith. “Causes and Effects of Lead in Water.” NRDC, 9 July 2021, https://www.nrdc.org/stories/causes-and-effects-lead-water#ej.

7. Shillinger, Raymond. “Why New Jersey Is Ripping Up It’s Streets | VR 180”, Bloomberg Quicktake, 21 Oct. 2020. https://youtu.be/V8hEYFpYsv4

Primary Sources: