Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
In Newark, a thirst for answers about how far city's surprise lead pipe problem goes
By
Mike Hayes
Published Mar 4, 2024
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Grace Cary / Getty Images
By
Mike Hayes
Published Mar 4, 2024
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Newark and state officials are promising more answers soon, after finding that at least three city homes were still being served by lead pipes even after a massive undertaking to excise lead from residential lines. But several community members say they feel left in the dark, more than a month after inspections turned up the problem.
The findings surprised residents, community activists and local officials alike, because the city was touted as a national example of how to solve a lead water crisis. Newark rapidly replaced more than 23,000 water service lines in a herculean effort that began in 2019, which Vice President Kamala Harris called a “role model” for the rest of the country. Yet officials have yet to announce which homes are affected or say if they think others are at risk.
The city and state officials conducting the probe haven’t yet said anything about the information they received that led them to the three homes, or how much further they suspect the problem may go. State officials say they may look beyond the city at work done around the state, but haven’t given any indication of how many other communities could be affected. They’ve said a third party appears to shoulder the blame for incomplete work, but haven’t said who that party is and what other lead remediation work they’ve done in Newark or other parts of New Jersey.
But a spokesperson for the state's Department of Environmental Protection told Gothamist that officials should have an update on the investigation in a week or two. A spokesperson for Mayor Ras Baraka referred questions to the DEP, which is working with Newark on the investigation.
“It's a huge blemish on the city and state. So now they're scrambling to really find out and do their due diligence.” said Newark resident Yvette Jordan, an environmental activist and chair of the Newark Education Workers Caucus. She was part of a group of community members invited to a meeting with officials the day after the news broke in early February.
Jordan said it’s not enough for officials to just tell residents they’re investigating. She said they need to be more open and frequent with what’s been happening over the past few weeks.
“Because folks are worried now, wondering if ‘Oh, I got to go back to filter and flush?’ Or now I got to go out and buy bottles of water again? It's like, come on!” she said. The city recommended a process in 2019 where residents ‘flush’ – or remove their faucet's internal components and let the water run for five minutes – then filter the tap water to try to reduce the level of lead.
Newark undertook the task of replacing its lead pipes en masse in 2019 after federal officials found that filters weren’t effectively protecting some residents from elevated lead levels in the city's water. The city distributed bottled water to thousands at the urging of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and warned residents not to rely on filters for drinking water or cooking. Unsafe lead exposure can be particularly harmful to pregnant mothers and the development of children. In 2021, New Jersey passed a law requiring towns in the state to replace all lead service lines within 10 years.
On Feb. 6, Mayor Ras Baraka inadvertently disclosed information about the faulty pipe replacements when a portion of his executive session with city councilmembers was accidentally streamed on YouTube. Baraka told fellow officials at that closed-door meeting that affected residents would soon be notified via a letter. Such private meetings are generally only allowed for certain legal, personnel or funding issues. The mayor’s office then called an immediate press briefing for that afternoon.
During that briefing, Baraka said his administration would conduct an audit of some of the work done to replace pipes in the city to see if there are more with remaining lead.
“Trust me, I can’t wait to tell you what’s going on and exactly who they are,” he said at the time.
Newark Water and Sewer Department Director Kareem Adeem also invited select community members to a meeting with Baraka and state DEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette.
“They said they were irate about this and that this was not their expectation,” Jordan said.
However, Jordan said that most of the information that was conveyed at the meeting was already out in the media. She said when the activists in attendance asked who was responsible, the officials responded “they are not sure and are still investigating.”
Questions about the location of the three residences where these service lines with lead had been found were similarly deferred, she said.
Nicole Miller — a member of the Newark Environmental Commission and the chair of the Newark Green Team — also attended the meeting. She said officials seemed hesitant to use the word “contractor” when referring to who might be behind the faulty work and told attendees they weren’t looking to implicate a “particular body” at that meeting.
“But they had some sort of service vendor who did not hold up their end of the bargain,” Miller said.
Miller said she received the letter that the mayor and DEP commissioner had promised to send out to Newark residents on the weekend after the meeting with officials. She said that when she read the letter, which was presented as a message from Adeem, she was struck that it said city officials first learned about the possibility of remaining lead lines in January, and had started inspections by Jan. 19. She questioned why it took until Feb. 6 for them to make the matter public.
In the letter, Adeem writes that the city and DEP were advised that a third-party “may not have complied with all requirements” of the lead replacement.
“It's unfortunate that it took an emergency response reaction based off of a hot mic to have the response that they did, which was going to community members being sort of candid,” she said.
Neither Adeem’s office nor the office of the mayor responded to a question asking them to explain why they waited until Feb. 6 to alert the public.
Construction firm CDM Smith ran the initiative to remove more than 23,000 lead service lines in Newark. The city also created an apprentice program that trained 50 Newark residents to assist in the work, as well as helped local businesses bid for parts of the project. CDM Smith announced in February 2022 that the work had been completed with no direct cost to Newark residents, as funds were allocated via the American Rescue Plan.
CDM Smith did not respond to questions by email and phone this week about how its management process in Newark worked.
The firm has current projects to remove lead service lines in other parts of the state, including some of New Jersey’s largest cities such as Trenton, Camden and Paterson. It’s also engaged in removal projects around the country, including in Chicago and Racine, Wisconsin.
Miller said she’s been following up regularly with the offices of the officials who ran the Feb. 7 meeting but “the response has been the investigation is ongoing.”
“We're asking questions and those questions are coming back with the sort of standard line. You know that that doesn't necessarily feel good,” she said. “I feel like they could have done better by giving us a timeline for expectation.”
Another Newark-based activist, Kim Gaddy, the national environmental justice director for Clean Water Action, said she’s disappointed there haven’t been any updates from the mayor since the first week of February. She hopes for “more transparency, more communication” from the mayor in the coming weeks.
“That is what I'm hoping will occur after he gets past the [State of the City] address,” said Gaddy, who also chairs NJDEP’s Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
Baraka is scheduled to give his State of the City address on March 12. He also announced in February that he intends to run for governor in 2025.
Mike Hayes
Mike Hayes covers equity and access to opportunity in New Jersey. He joined WNYC and Gothamist in 2023. Before that, he worked as a freelance journalist writing about policing and criminal justice. He has written for ProPublica, CNN, HuffPost, BuzzFeed News and The Appeal. He is also the author of the book, “The Secret Files: Bill De Blasio, The NYPD, and the Broken Promises of Police Reform.” In 2019, he was a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Queens man found dead, police say, and injured woman is his mother, neighbors say
Police are investigating a related incident in which a 62-year-old woman was found injured beneath the Van Wyck Expressway.
By
Charles Lane
Published Oct 14, 2026 at 7:39 p.m. ET
Man shot by ICE in NYC's Marble Hill said federal officers never identified themselves
The wounded man said he didn't learn ICE agents were involved until he woke up in the hospital.
By
Arya Sundaram
and
Samantha Max
News
Man shot by ICE in NYC's Marble Hill said federal officers never identified themselves
The wounded man said he didn't learn ICE agents were involved until he woke up in the hospital.
By
Arya Sundaram
and
Samantha Max
Brooklyn school dean says MTA officers assaulted him over a $3 bus fare he says he paid
By
Carol Chen
National Grid customers in NYC will see higher gas bills this winter
By
Rosemary Misdary
Bruce Blakeman joins Gov. Hochul in support for expanding NY rape law
By
Jon Campbell
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .