After botched tests, Syracuse will hire outside experts to test for lead in water - syracuse.com

Feb 20, 2025

- A worker with J.J. Lane General Contractors compacts stone after a crew from the company replaced a lead water pipe with a copper one at 210 Scott Ave. in Syracuse on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Rick Moriarty | [email protected]) Rick MoriartyRick Moriarty

The city of Syracuse on Tuesday fired itself from testing for lead in residential drinking water and hired a third-party company to do the next round of tests.

Councilors approved a request from Mayor Ben Walsh to outsource spring testing to the company 120Water, which does testing for Buffalo and other big cities. It could cost up to $96,000.

The city water department had just one employee to handle testing, which is required twice each year by the federal government, Commissioner Robert Brandt said.

That employee has been reassigned after botching tests in the first half of 2024.

Instead of testing samples from kitchen and bathroom faucets, the employee drew water from some outdoor spigots and garden hoses. The city blamed a round of outrageously high lead level results on that improper testing.

It sparked widespread confusion and drew national attention from activists who fought to clean up the water in Flint, Michigan. The city has handed out more than 6,000 filtered Brita pitchers.

Brandt said the city could hire another staff person to test water, but they wanted to outsource the next rounds.

“We’re bringing in a third-party company to bring back the trust in our community,” Brandt said.

The debate before city council exposed another hole in water testing practices in a city with a high number of rental properties.

The city only tests water in a sample of about 100 single-family homes, as required by the Environmental Protection Agency, Brandt said.

Councilors asked whether the city should go beyond the requirement and test some two-family homes. That would bring in more properties in neighborhoods where kids are also more likely to be exposed to lead in peeling paint.

Homeowners volunteer to draw water samples for the city to send to a lab for testing. Brandt said it would be difficult to get landlords to volunteer their properties. But he said the water department would work with councilors to allocate staff and funding to test more homes.

Councilor Pat Hogan said he voted to approve the hiring of 120Water for the first half of the year on the condition that the city would issue a request for proposals to hire more than one company for the second half of the year. That could allow the city to go beyond EPA standards and test a variety of properties, he said.

Oceanna Fair, co-director of Families for Lead Freedom Now, suggested the city hire local companies with employees who know the neighborhoods.

“I definitely think we should be testing as many homes as possible because they way we’re doing it now, where we use children to find lead, is not the best way,” Fair said.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, councilors voted to borrow $25 million to replace about 3,000 water service lines made of lead. The money is to be reimbursed by state grants.

The work is a big project, but just a start. The city has identified about 11,000 more service lines and there could be as many as 30,000 in Syracuse, Brandt said.

Replacing every line would cost about $300 million, he said.

Contact Michelle Breidenbach | [email protected] | 315-470-3186.

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.