After water woes, NY eyes tougher standards
ALBANY - In the midst of nationally growing concerns over water contamination, New York state lawmakers are proposing a series of bills to address the issue.
In the Assembly, an effort is being made to shift the responsibility of testing for lead in water from schools and day-care centers to instead be conducted by local water departments.
The bill, sponsored by Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, D-Ithaca, would also require school officials to notify parents earlier than what is currently required if dangerous lead levels are found in water.
Coverage: Home pipes, fixtures can be a concern for lead in water
The measure is among the flood of recent bills to address New York’s water quality after a recent USA TODAY Network investigation of lead in water found that hundreds of schools and day cares throughout the country failed lead tests between 2012 and 2015.
“It’s really important that we have a full discussion and have lots of people look at it and weigh in,” Lifton said. “What’s the best way to ensure that our children of all ages, especially children, are protected from the very serious hazard of lead poisoning through water?”
Another effort addressing water issues is being made by Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, R-Glenville, Schenectady County, who is sponsoring a bill to streamline funding to municipalities to identify and renovate aging water infrastructure such as pipes and water mains.
Tedisco’s bill has no Senate version, but has 21 sponsors in the Assembly including many Southern Tier and western New York lawmakers, such as Clifford Crouch, R-Guilford, Chenango County, Chris Friend, R-Big Flats, Chemung County, and Bill Nojay, R-Pittsford.
The proposed legislation would work through a funding plan similar to the Consolidated Highway Improvement Program — which secures over $400 million in the budget for infrastructure projects — but its supporters said they would like the new fund to start with at least $200 million for the water infrastructure renovation.
Calls for more funding
If the water infrastructure program received funding, it would prevent water main breaks and replace old water systems that may include lead, a toxic chemical, state lawmakers said.
Phil Palmesano, R-Corning, said the USA TODAY investigation and articles by Gannett newspapers in New York increased his concern over the issue and the need for more state aid.
“That’s a problem. We have a deteriorated infrastructure, and it goes across the boundaries, and for our schools, particularly our kids, if they are drinking water that is not good for them,” he said after a news conference on the issue March 28.
Palmesano pointed to the lead in water crisis unfolding in Flint, Michigan, and the recent crisis in Hoosick Falls, Rensselaer County, which has found levels of the toxic chemical PFOA in some of its water. Only in recent days has the state Department of Health said it was safe for residents in Hoosick Falls to drink the water there.
“This is a health and safety issue first and foremost, but it’s also an economic development issue and it all works hand-in-hand,” he said. “We can’t just pick winners or losers on who gets this funding.”
Lifton’s bill calls for local water districts to test the water for lead in schools and day cares rather than the districts or the companies that run the facilities.
The bill would also amend the time frame for notification allowed if lead is found in the water consisting of 15 parts per billion or more. Under Lifton’s proposal, schools would have up to 30 days to inform families of students when lead is found instead of the current 60 days.
Reforms spurred
The USA TODAY Network investigated two schools in her district, Caroline and Enfield elementaries, which both were found to have water with lead. Lead in water can cause developmental delays if introduced to a child’s blood through water, paint or soil.
“I just happened to be having a town meeting on the budget and all that other stuff and suddenly half of my meetings were people who wanted to talk about lead,” Lifton said. “The Ithaca school is hiring, is in the process of hiring if they haven’t already hired, an engineering firm to investigate what the source and what the cause is. It’s very important you identify and actually figure out what the problem is.”
The state legislative session runs until mid-June, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo has talked about making it a priority to replace aging water systems, saying decades of manufacturing across upstate has led to the need to re-mediate areas of contamination.
The state budget this year is expected to include an additional $100 million two-year commitment for municipal drinking water and wastewater infrastructure grants — to a total of $250 million.
“This situation with chemicals in the water, I would love to say is unique, that we don’t think this is ever going to happen again,” Cuomo said March 13 when he visited Hoosick Falls. “Unfortunately, I believe we’re going to continue to find situations like this all throughout the state, all throughout the country.”
Cuomo said that in places like Hoosick Falls, where a factory that made Teflon products is located in town, chemicals were being used for decades that the public knew little about — especially the long-term impacts.
“We were in the manufacturing economy. We were making things. We were using chemicals. We were using chemicals that were never used before,” he said.
“We allowed waste disposal in fashions that, in retrospect, were not prudent and now, in many ways, we are paying the price as a society. We’re discovering new chemicals, new chemicals that may be problematic and then science has to do a lot of work to determine what concentration is problematic.”
Progress at Capitol
Lifton’s bill has four sponsors, including Assemblyman David Buchwald, D-White Plains, Westchester County. It has yet to get a Senate sponsor.
Another legislative effort tackling lead contamination is through a proposal that would provide funding to school districts to test for lead in water if the building was built before 1986 — the year lead-free plumbing was enacted under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.
It is sponsored by Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, D-Endwell, Broome County, in the Assembly and by Sens. Thomas O’Mara, R-Big Flats, Chemung County, and Sue Serino, R-Hyde Park, Dutchess County.
In the city of Ithaca, the Department of Public Works tests for lead every three years through 30 household samples, according to Erik Whitney, assistant superintendent of Ithaca Department of Public Water Works in Water and Sewer.
Each test costs from $25 to $35 to be shipped out to a commercial lab to be analyzed. Added in with the staff labor, such as the sampling done by public works lab technicians, it raises the cost to around $50, Whitney said.
School districts, he explained, are currently independent in testing water in New York, adding that none of the public schools in the city of Ithaca are tested by the Department of Public Works.
Whitney predicted the problem won’t end soon.
“It’s really something that won’t be addressed totally until all the construction cycles, maybe a 100 years from now, to get all this plumbing replaced,” he said.
NMUSCAVAGE@Gannett.com
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