About 40% of the 37,370 water service lines in Syracuse could be at risk of leaching traces of lead into the water of city homes, new city data shows. The city released Oct. 18 its inventory of water service lines, the formal name for the underground pipes that connect city water mains to sidewalks on the public side and then to internal plumbing on the private side. The interactive map shows that at least 14,552 service lines are made out of lead and could contaminate the water going into city properties. The material of 4,068 other pipes remain unidentified by the city’s water department. The inventory was released as part of new guidelines unveiled earlier this month by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that are meant to spur the replacement of 9.2 million lead pipes supplying water to households across the country. In Syracuse, most of these lines are found in homes built prior to 1940, city officials say. The high number of lead service lines in the city and some recent water testing results, local and national public health advocates say, are alarming. City officials have unveiled a plan to replace all the lead service lines by at least 2029, but advocates say the city could move faster and do more for affected families. Acting swiftly, advocates say, is necessary, as lead in water compounds potential for lead poisoning alongside other sources like chipping lead paint and lead dust. Recent water testing numbers from the city, they say, show the need for action.Water test results of 104 homes published in August showed the level of lead in the samples vastly exceeded the level of action from the EPA.This prompted advocates to pen a letter to elected leaders in the state, in Onondaga County, and in the city saying the situation in Syracuse is worse than the one seen in Flint, Michigan a decade ago. “It is sad that they have been behind the eight ball on this for the longest time,” said Oceanna Fair, one of the letter’s signatories and a member of Families for Lead Freedom Now, a local organization aiding families affected by lead poisoning. The city has contested the claim, saying that those numbers are outliers compared to the track record of staying at or below the EPA threshold of action of 15 parts-per-billion since at least 2019, the oldest records found on the city’s website. The city recently retested some of the homes that showed high levels of lead in August, along with another 105 as part of a new testing report that needs to be submitted to the state by Dec. 31. City officials say they found lead levels to be at 10 parts per billion during that period of preliminary testing. The new EPA regulations would lower the threshold at which action from the city is required from 15 to 10 ppb. That threshold would go into effect in 2027. Advocates say the best way to get the levels down for good is to replace lead service lines all together. City officials say they plan to replace at minimum 3,000 lead service lines every year starting in 2025, tentatively wrapping up replacement projects by 2029. In 2025, 3,000 service line replacements could cost about $22.8 million. All of that would be covered by federal funds disbursed by New York state.Advocates say the city’s plan is a step in the right direction, but that other municipalities have moved faster to replace larger inventories. The city, they say, could do more to keep families safe while they await a service line replacement, like teaching best practices when using water from a potentially compromised source and providing water filters to affected families. The city says it is working on securing filters for families and that their website has information on how to best handle a lead service line in the home.For advocates, the situation calls for more urgency. “This is something that can really be addressed,” said Valerie Baron, policy director at the National Resources Defense Council, a nonprofit advocating against lead contamination in the city’s drinking water. Part of the city’s plan to prevent lead poisoning includes partnering with the county to provide filters to every family with a pregnant person or a child 6 years old or younger, said Sol Muñoz, a city spokesperson. But Baron and Fair argue that providing filters for every address with a lead service line is necessary, as lead poisoning hazards like lead service lines tend to be concentrated in economically distressed areas of the city and families cannot afford to buy their own.  “Even though not all of these filters might seem so expensive to everybody, a lot of families can’t afford ‘one more thing,’” Baron said.Fair said that every household with a lead service line needs to have a filter due to the way families handle childcare.“Children are often babysat by grandparents or other family members because of the cost of childcare and because we don’t have options,” she said. “Sometimes children are visiting that home for a significant amount of time, so we need to blanket the area with filters and make sure folks know how to use them.”The city also needs to speed up its lead service line replacement timeline, Fair said. She referenced the city of Newark, New Jersey, which got most of their lead pipes out by 2021, two years after the EPA demanded the city take action. Newark took some bold steps to move swiftly, like allowing line replacements without a property owner’s consent, according to a New York Times report. Fair proposed a two pronged approach: having the city declare a state of emergency, which could make the city’s case more appealing when applying for competitive federal funding, and expediting the hiring of local contractors to get the work done. This would look similar to the hiring framework used by the state to gather a local, well-compensated workforce who can fulfill the Interstate-81 viaduct replacement project. “They just need to get the work done,” Fair said. The post About 40% of Syracuse’s water service lines are made of lead, city’s inventory shows appeared first on Central Current.