"When Newark announced it was handing out 40,000 filters to residents believed to be at risk of high lead levels in their water, it came as a surprise to some. This was in October, and for more than a year, the city had said Newark's water was “absolutely safe to drink,” while robocalls to residents assured them their water was not contaminated.
“I got dozens of robocalls,” said Shakima Thomas, a Newark resident who recently discovered that her water has almost twice the action level for lead allowed by EPA rules. “What I remember from them is ‘the water is not contaminated with lead, this is not an emergency.’”
Now, recent research by the government itself suggests Newark does indeed have a water crisis on its hands. A study commissioned by the city indicates that a change in the water chemistry at their Pequannock water treatment plant caused lead service lines to leach and contaminate the water in as many as 22,000 households’ taps, starting in early 2017. And recent tests showed close to half of 180 households monitored had dangerous levels of lead in their water.
In June, the Natural Resources Defense Council — the same organization that sued Flint, Michigan, over lead in its drinking water — sued Newark, for violating drinking water rules meant to protect residents from lead. Mayor Ras Baraka denies this.
The most recent tests in Newark show that 47.2 percent of houses tested exceed the action level for lead. The city is continuing to study the problem to find a solution. In the meantime, it has started to hand out filters to residents with lead lines and is ramping up their lead line replacement program."
https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/yw7kyb/how-newark-got-lead-in-its-water-and-what-it-means-for-the-rest-of-america
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