‘Syracuse’s drinking water is safe’: City double downs on lead level safety in water following rally

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — A crowd of people chanting "What do we want? Clean water! When do we want it? Now!" flooded the steps of Syracuse City Hall on Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 12.

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They want the city to do more when it comes to making sure there's no lead in their drinking water.

"They refuse to do their due diligence. They refuse to look out for more their most vulnerable population, which is our children," said Darlene Medley, whose twin sons were diagnosed with lead poisoning. "Our children are our most valuable asset."

The crowd has a list of things they want the city to do.

"You can't boil lead out of your water. There is nothing we can do," said Dekah Dancil, the president of Urban Jobs Task Force. "They have to replace these pipes, they have to give everybody a filter, they have to declare a state of emergency and they have to act on this fast."

The chief policy officer for Syracuse says the city has done what they needed to after a second round of testing showed no problems.

"Syracuse's drinking water is safe," said Greg Loh, the city's chief policy officer. "Our health commissioner has said in writing and publicly in response to these groups that Syracuse's water supply is not contaminated."

Loh says samples taken during the first round of testing were handled improperly, leading to high levels of lead.

"Those procedures weren't followed properly when those samples were taken, which may explain those elevated levels," he said. "Those employees are on leave and an investigation is going on."

And he said a state of emergency is not warranted.

"You would need to be exceeding the EPA levels that are measured and the allowable levels of lead allowed under EPA requirements," Loh said. "Syracuse isn't meeting that standard."

Loh said next year the city will do more than 3000 lead service line replacements. That's double the number the EPA requires from cities.