Alarmed residents and activists demand action over lead in the water in Syracuse

SYRACUSE, New York — Residents and environmental activists are demanding city officials declare a state of emergency over what they say could be a worse lead contamination than the drinking water crisis that afflicted Flint, Michigan, a decade ago .

The city of Syracuse has been at odds with residents since informing them in a letter over the summer that water samples from more than two dozen homes were found to have high lead levels.

Local officials later blamed the elevated numbers on improper testing , put two water department employees on leave and said retesting showed much lower levels of lead.

But many Syracuse residents feel that a potential threat to their health is being ignored.

"The city's initial response to these lead water testing results was really disheartening, because it seemed to downplay the effort," one resident, Maureen Murphy, said at a packed meeting at Syracuse City Hall on Thursday. "This is morally outrageous."

City officials say that more than 14,000 homes receive water from lead pipes, which comprises about a quarter of residences citywide. In August, they said that lead levels in 27 homes out of the 104 they had sampled as part of routine testing were above 15 parts per billion, the federal action level for lead in public water, set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Lead is a neurotoxin. There is no safe level of lead in the blood, and children younger than 6 are most vulnerable to lead poisoning , according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Even low levels of lead are associated with learning and behavioral difficulties, the CDC says, and lead exposure can cause lifelong developmental issues and speech and hearing difficulties, among other health problems.

The initial results in Syracuse showed that 10% of homes sampled were at 70 parts per billion or above, the city reported . That's more than double what comparable testing showed in 2015 in Flint, a year after the Michigan city switched its water source to the Flint River in a cost-cutting move but failed to properly treat it, leading to lead and other contaminants leaching into drinking water.

In Syracuse, officials say there is no lead in the lake that provides drinking water to residents. But like elsewhere in the country, there are lead service pipes in older homes throughout the city. The EPA estimates that up to 9 million homes nationwide are served by legacy lead pipes, many of which are in lower-income communities and communities of color; census figures show 48% of the Syracuse population identifies as nonwhite, with more than 29% of the city's residents living in poverty.

In October, the Natural Resources Defense Council, a nonprofit organization that works to protect the environment, and other advocates wrote a letter urging Syracuse officials to declare a state of emergency and to hand out water filters to all residents with lead pipes.

Days later, the city announced that resampling from 24 of the homes that had high lead levels found only two still above the federal action threshold — a drop that the NRDC says is almost impossible in less than two months.

"We don't believe that," said Erik Olson, senior strategic director for health and environmental health at the NRDC. "There's something fishy about all this data."

Last week, NRDC sent a second letter, accusing Syracuse of "inaction and outright denial" of a health crisis and again pushing officials to do more outreach, expand testing protocols and provide more filters to residents.

But city officials have only committed to giving water filters to those most at risk: households with children younger than 6 and pregnant women, Syracuse Chief Policy Officer Greg Loh told NBC News. The distribution process is expected to begin in early December.

When pressed on why the city won't hand out filters to all of the thousands of homes that have lead pipes, Loh said, "That isn't what the data shows is necessary at this point to ensure people's health is protected."

The New York State Department of Health says the state has provided more than $22 million to the city to help replace lead service lines. Loh said there is no reason to declare a state of emergency, which would clear the way for additional funding.

That's because the city is already on pace to replace all lead pipes within the next five years, he said, with plans to replace 3,000 of them in the next year. That's faster than EPA guidelines that call for lead pipes to be replaced within a decade.

"We've undertaken lead service line replacements proactively. We're exceeding the requirements of the EPA," Loh said.

Syracuse officials have taken other steps. Water Department Commissioner Robert Brandt told residents at last week's city hall meeting that a hotline has been set up to respond to residents' concerns. He also said the city has treated drinking water for years with orthophosphate, an additive that protects pipes from corroding and leaching lead. That water treatment had not been used in Flint .

"I am absolutely confident in our water," Brandt said at the meeting.

A preventable problem Many still worry that lead is a problem. New York state requires health care providers to test children for lead at age 1 and again at age 2 and in Syracuse, more than 9% of children citywide have elevated blood lead levels, according to Onondaga County data .

Among them are retired nurse Oceanna Fair's granddaughters, ages 5 and 10, who live with her. Both girls are being treated for lead exposure; the oldest is believed to have become poisoned by lead paint, prompting an investigation by Onondaga County that resealed Fair's home but did not involve any work on her water lines. A year after that, Fair said that her youngest granddaughter, Ella, tested positive for lead poisoning, and Fair believes her exposure must have come through a lead service line in the home.

Fair does not think her house was among the sites from which the city took water samples. After she heard about the results elsewhere in the city, she examined her home herself, performing a scratch test to reveal a lead pipe. She has asked city officials to test it.

And while it's not confirmed if or to what extent the service line may have been a factor in Ella's blood lead level, Fair is now filtering all drinking water.

"This is her home. She should be safe here," said Fair, who is one of the residents leading an advocacy group called Families for Lead Freedom Now. " Yet, here is this thing that's in our home. We can't see it, we can't smell it, we can't taste it, and we weren't able to protect her from it."

Dr. Nicole Brescia, a pediatric neurologist in Syracuse who has an infant daughter, said it's "not unusual" for her to treat children in the area for elevated lead levels.

"Lead poisoning is 100% preventable, and once kids get lead poisoned, it's not a simple matter of telling them, 'Wash your hands, wipe your floors down with a rag,'" she said while attending a recent water safety rally in Syracuse. "If we don't get rid of the source of the problem, then it makes it very difficult to treat."

The EPA told NBC News that it is working with the state Health Department to ensure the drinking water system in Syracuse complies with its rules.

"Based on recent results, the city exceeded the lead action level, which triggers a series of required response actions. This exceedance is not a violation, and the state is closely tracking the city's performance in implementing these required measures," it said in a statement.

Syracuse's concerns come as the EPA takes a more stringent stance on lead. Last month, the agency updated regulations that will eventually reduce the action level to 10 parts per billion, down from 15 parts per billion.

Activists hope Syracuse officials will learn lessons from the Flint water crisis, during which almost 30,000 children drank and bathed in lead-laced water before the EPA stepped in. Since the lead was discovered, students who qualified for special education services at Flint schools skyrocketed, though it's not clear whether there is a definitive connection .

Fair said that her granddaughter Ella's lead levels have dropped since their household started using filtered water. She hopes the city prioritizes replacing lead service pipes from homes with children and does more to educate the community about the possibility of lead.

"Instead of saying there's nothing to see here, let's just be transparent and get the work done," Fair said.

Kyla Guilfoil, Erin McLaughlin and Emily Berk reported from Syracuse. Elizabeth Chuck reported from New York.