City Reports on Water Tests Were Incomplete, State Says

Subject: Fwd: [RW list] FW: [CRSE] FW: NYTimes.com Article: City Reports on Water Tests Were Incomplete, State Says
Date: 11/30/2004 9:30:23 AM Eastern Standard Time
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Subj: [RW list] FW: [CRSE] FW: NYTimes.com Article: City Reports on Water Tests Were Incomplete, State Says
Date: 11/30/2004 8:23:10 AM Eastern Standard Time
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The question then becomes, What else haven't they told us?

Brian Alberghinihttp://www.crse.org

City Reports on Water Tests Were Incomplete, State Says
November 30, 2004
By IAN URBINA

New York City violated federal drinking water rules overthe past six years by supplying incomplete results from itsannual tests for lead, state health officials saidyesterday. The complete results now show that the city's tap water hadslightly more than the allowable levels of lead from 2000through 2002, the Health Department officials said, butthey stressed that there was no significant threat topublic health.

The state did not issue any fines for the reportingviolation. State health officials said they would requirethe city's Department of Environmental Protection toprovide a plan by the end of this year for replacing allservice lines and pipes where lead is found to be leakinginto drinking water and to increase the frequency of leadtesting to every six months from once a year.

They will also require the city to begin a program toinform citizens how to determine how much lead is in theirtap water. "For precautionary reasons we are requiring New York City to immediately begin taking a series of corrective actions to further ensure its drinking water is of good quality andsafe for residents to consume," said Robert Kenny, aspokesman for the Health Department. "We will continue toclosely monitor this situation with the federalgovernment." With about 6,000 employees, the City Department ofEnvironmental Protection oversees the aqueducts, reservoirs, tunnels and pipes that supply more than one billion gallons of water to the city each day. It is also in charge of administering annual lead tests on drinkingwater.

The state's Health Department is supposed to collect the final data and ensure that the city remains incompliance with federal regulations.

Charles G. Sturcken, a spokesman for the Department ofEnvironmental Protection, said the city was still reviewing the state's requirements but he added that lead levels in city drinking water were within allowable range in 2003. In a sign of the confusion that exists over federal rules governing the testing of tap water, Mr. Sturcken said the federal environmental authorities issued a clarification of the rules within the past week.

"We are going to take a close look at the order issued bythe state," Mr. Sturcken said, "but we're also going to look closely at the clarification of the rules issued by the federal government, and I imagine most every water provider in the country will be doing the same.

"The Health Department began investigating the city's lead testing last month after news reports that providers of drinking water around the nation were not properly reporting the results of their tests."We think the state's action is entirely appropriate," saidMary Mears, a spokeswoman for the federal EnvironmentalProtection Agency for the New York region. She praised the state for taking action so quickly.

Eric A. Goldstein, a lawyer who monitors drinking water issues at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group, and who has reviewed the data from the city's lead tests for the past four years, said lead levels in the city's drinking water have steadily declined since the early 1990's. The tests also reveal that in a small percentage of households, dangerous levels of lead are leaching into the water from household pipes or service lines, he said."We see no evidence that the Department of EnvironmentalProtection's violation was intentional," Mr. Goldstein said of the city agency. "But it is still a smudge on theagency's reputation, and it shows that the agency has a ways to go before it meets its responsibilities to protect the city's water." The department has been under federal supervision by a court-appointed monitor since 2001. The monitor was imposed after the department pleaded guilty to violating federal environmental laws by discharging mercury-contaminated water into a pool that flowed into an upstate reservoir and by leaving employees unprotected for more than a decade as they used machinery contaminated with PCB's.

Over the past several years, the monitor has filed reports revealing that the department has been plagued by an entrenched political culture that has led to infighting, mishaps and oversights. On Nov. 18, the monitor told the federal judge handling the case that department officials had repeatedly tried to impede investigations of possible violations of federal health, safety and environmental laws. Federal oversight of the agency, which was supposed to last three years, was recently extended for a fourth year, until Aug. 29, 2005.

On Thursday, Councilman James F. Gennaro, chairman of theCommittee on Environmental Protection, will hold a hearingto review the department's handling of health and safetymatters.

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