Newark Mayor Tells Trump: We Need Safe Water, Not A Border Wall

NEWARK, NJ — It’s going to cost $70 million to fix Newark’s corroding lead service lines. And according to Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, it’s only fair that the federal government foots some of the bill.

Earlier this week, Baraka sent a letter to President Donald Trump in the wake of his highly watched “border wall” speech to the nation. During his speech, Trump insisted that building a wall would help combat what he called a national security crisis, a stance that many experts have questioned.

In his letter, Baraka implored Trump to give up the idea of building a $5 billion wall and instead put the money to work solving a more pressing need… fixing the nation’s ailing, aging water infrastructure. (Read the full letter here)

According to Newark’s mayor, New Jersey’s largest city is only one of several across the nation finally forced to confront mounting issues with their drinking water, particularly lead contamination.

In October 2018, Newark officials kicked off a massive effort to distribute thousands of lead water filters to residents and conduct water testing after a study revealed that corrosion control is "no longer effective" in some parts of the city's water network.

Municipal workers and community groups went door-to-door and handed out free filters to residents of homes with lead service lines, the suspected source of the issue. There are at least 15,000 homes with lead services lines in Newark, the New Jersey Sierra Club estimated.

• See related article: Newark Hands Out Thousands Of Lead Water Filters After Lawsuit
• See related article: Newark Mayor On Lead In Water Reports: 'We're Not Flint' (VIDEOS)

Newark is hardly alone in its struggle, its mayor pointed out. More than 20 other New Jersey cities and towns have elevated levels of lead in their tap water, and so do thousands of municipalities across nation, Baraka wrote to Trump.

Looking for a common link among the affected locations? They’re mainly “older black and brown cities with limited resources,” Baraka said.

And as such – if you value environmental justice – it’s only fair that the federal government helps cities recover, Baraka implored the president.

“In the short term, we are distributing 40,000 water filters and cartridges to affected homes in Newark. We are also changing our corrosion control system. But, the only real solution to save this and future generations of children is to replace lead service lines. It will cost an estimated $70 million to replace the lead service lines in Newark, hundreds of millions more to replace them in New Jersey, and an estimated $35 billion to replace all of the lead service lines in America. Achieving this is possible only with financial help from the federal government.”

Newark’s mayor concluded his letter to the president with a reference to his southern border speech:

“You have been saying that a border wall will save thousands of American lives, but that's simply not true, instead of wasting billions of dollars to keep an ill-conceived campaign promise, I urge you to use our resources in a way that will truly save American lives - help repair our nation's deteriorated water infrastructure.”

• See related article: Trump Declares He'll 'Never Back Down' In Shutdown Fight

However, some experts are insisting that the city has a role to play in cleaning up the mess, too.

After city officials began handing out thousands of water filters to affected residents, Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, said that bringing in filters is only a stopgap measure.

"Just like bringing in bottled water into Camden, the Brita Filter Poland Spring solution does not work long-term," Tittel said.

"There is a crisis to Newark's water system and people's health is at risk," Tittel added. "Newark and the state of New Jersey need to move quickly to find a permanent solution to protect drinking water in homes and schools from lead."

In June of 2018, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed a safe drinking water lawsuit with the Newark Education Workers (NEW Caucus) against the city, accusing officials of dragging their feet when it comes to cleaning up lead in the water.

After the city announced it was handing out free water filters to residents, the NRDC released the following statement:

“The city's promise to provide its residents with filters is a direct result of Newark's citizens taking a stand to protect their health and the health of their community. However, there is still a lot of work to be done. Newark's water has some of the highest lead levels of any big city in the nation. They have known for more than a year, yet they've told residents it's safe to drink. Providing water filters to those with lead service lines is an important step forward, but today's action will not protect many of the people most at risk from lead exposure, including pregnant women and young children who may have high lead levels but don't have known lead service lines. Given Newark's track record of delay, denial and failure to properly inform the public of the threat from lead in Newark's drinking water, it is important that residents hold city officials accountable to a legally enforceable timetable of action.”

A December 2018 blog post from the NRDC charged that the city's ongoing struggle with multiple instances of lead contamination may be affecting some of its most vulnerable residents... schoolchildren.

"Unfortunately, unsafe lead levels have been reported in drinking water in Newark’s East Ward for years," the NRDC stated. "In 2014, the city reported lead levels of 19 parts per billion in the Wanaque service area. Two years later, in 2016, lead levels above the federal limit were found in the drinking water of nearly half of Newark’s public schools, including at least three—Wilson Avenue School, South Street School, and East Side High School—located in the East Ward. Lead in drinking water at Wilson Avenue School, an elementary and middle school, reached 193 parts per billion."

• See related article: Newark Was Warned, Memo Says: Lead In School Water Supply Is A 'Smoking Gun'

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File Photo: Mayor Ras Baraka announces Newark will hand out water filters to affected residents in 2018 (City of Newark Press Office)