Wealthy N.J. towns would not stand for this kind of water, angry protesters say – NJ.com
As Newark Mayor Ras Baraka readied to deliver his state of the city address Tuesday night, about a dozen residents gathered outside the New Jersey Performing Arts Center Tuesday to send him a clear message: We want clean water.
Lead levels in Newark’s drinking water samples have exceeded the federal standard for more than two years. The latest results from the state show the last six-month monitoring period recorded the highest levels of lead in the drinking water in 17 years. It’s a problem Baraka says his administration is addressing, but protesters Tuesday were not satisfied.
“The administration is not doing everything it can to educate the citizens of Newark about the lead crisis,” said Anthony Diaz, a member of the newly-formed Newark Water Coalition that aims to inform residents about safe water.
“If this was happening in Montclair, in South Orange, in Bergen County, they would not stand for this.” (A water system that serves about 800,000 residents in Bergen and Hudson counties separately reported elevated lead levels earlier this year).
Holding some signs that explained the health effects of lead, and others that demanded safe water, residents marched from Military Park to NJPAC chanting, “safe water for Newark.”
While no level of lead is safe, the state requires additional action from water systems if more than 10 percent of water samples exceed the federal action level of 15 parts per billion. From July to December last year, more than 100 of 240 samples exceeded the federal standard.
Newark on Wednesday will break ground on its $75 million lead service line replacement program that aims to replace 15,000-18,000 lead pipes that connect underground water mains to homes. The city is also working on changing the way it treats the water at the Pequannock Water Treatment Plant, one of two plants that service the city.
Last October, the city said the corrosion control treatment at the Pequannock plant stopped working and was causing lead from the lead service lines to dissolve into the water. In the meantime, the city has rolled out a filter program and said its distributed 33,000 filters to residents. It plans to hand out 40,000 filters.
But resident Zaire Ruffin, 20, who lives in the South Ward, said he was denied a filter at one of the recreation centers when he went to pick one up.
“It didn’t make any sense … I live in a three-family home and there are children there,” Ruffin told NJ Advance Media as he held a sign that read: “Boiling Water will not remove lead.”
Ruffin said he wants residents to get more involved in learning about their water and demanding city officials take more responsibility.
During Baraka’s address, the mayor made reference to the protest while thanking the city’s Water and Sewer Utilities Department.
“When faced with a problem involving corroding service lines, they acted with professionalism and dedication,” he said. “So do me a favor when you leave here today and you go outside: Tell people we need more than them just walking in circles telling us to do things we’ve already done.”
Karen Yi may be reached at kyi@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @karen_yi or on Facebook.
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