Sen. Booker Says His Bill Would Help Newark With Its Water Woes

NEWARK, NJ — Do you think that the city of Flint, Michigan deserves a helping hand with its battle against water contamination? There are dozens of New Jersey cities that also need a boost, and one of them is Newark, according to U.S. Sen. Cory Booker.

On Thursday, Booker – the former mayor of Newark and 2020 presidential candidate – introduced what he dubbed the “Water Infrastructure Funding Transfer Bill” in the Senate.

If passed into law, the bill would give states flexibility when using federal dollars to fund drinking water infrastructure projects. It would work by allowing states that are “facing a threat to public health from lead” to transfer federal grant dollars from their Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) to their Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF).

Ultimately, the cash shuffle would help get some extra funds to cities that are struggling with lead in their drinking water… including Newark, Booker said.

“Flint is not an anomaly,” Booker said. “Communities across the country don’t have clean drinking water, and those communities are disproportionately low-income and communities of color. This is an environmental justice issue and our common-sense bill will help communities like Newark finance critical repairs and upgrades to their drinking water systems.”

The bill, S-1689, was referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works on Thursday.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has downplayed comparisons to Flint, however, claiming that the underlying issues with its water infrastructure are completely different. In addition, the city has been proactive and transparent about its efforts to address its water woes, he said.

• See related article: Newark Mayor On Lead In Water Reports: 'We're Not Flint' (VIDEOS)
• See related article: Newark Mayor Tells Trump: We Need Safe Water, Not A Border Wall

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.

In February, the Newark City Council gave an official go-ahead to begin phase one of an eight-year, $75 million effort to replace thousands of residential lead service lines, one of the suspected sources of the contamination.

Those lines are not owned by the city, but rather by individual homeowners. While the average cost of replacing residential lead service lines can range between $4,000 and $10,000, Newark homeowners' out-of-pocket payments are capped at $1,000 under a program developed by city and state officials.

By the time the project is complete, about 15,000 homes across Newark will have new service lines, city officials previously said.

Earlier this month, Newark has kicked off the latest phase of its campaign, launching a new corrosion control method for the Pequannock Water Treatment System.

Newark officials said they are putting a "safe additive" called orthophosphate into the water, which will help to reduce lead levels. The Pequannock treatment area will now use the same corrosion control that remains effective in the Wanaque system.

A Newark city spokesperson said that Belleville, Bloomfield and Nutley – which purchase water from Newark – will all benefit from the orthophosphate treatment. Towns that buy Newark's water on an emergency basis, such as East Orange and South Orange, will also benefit.

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• See related article: Newark's New Way Of Fighting Lead Will Benefit Nearby Essex Towns

Not everyone is happy with the way the city is attacking its water issues, however.

“By the time government officials of Newark agreed to distribute water filters to some of its residents, they’d been drinking lead-laden tap water for at least 21 months,” the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) wrote earlier this week.

“By the time the city began to acknowledge the problem, it was facing a federal lawsuit and multiple notices for violating the Safe Drinking Water Act,” the group charged. (Read their full blog post here)

• See related article: Newark Hands Out Thousands Of Lead Water Filters After Lawsuit

According to the NRDC, some residents, such as Sabre Bee, purchase gallons of water each week. Bee claimed that the free water filters provided by the city were “basically garbage,” and that she received no replacement cartridges nor any explanation on how to install them or use them.

Another resident, Shakima Thomas, said her kindergarten-age son has been affected by the lead in her home’s water supply, which measured at 76.2 parts per billion in February.

“I try to feed him things that are supposed to be good for his health, like spinach,” Thomas said. “That’s been difficult. And I have to constantly monitor him when we’re taking a bath so that he doesn’t put the water in his mouth. But he thinks it’s a game, so sometimes he’ll do the things I tell him not to do. It’s hard. I don’t want to yell at him or traumatize him, but the water isn’t safe. I can see him looking at me, though, and thinking, ‘If it’s not safe, then why am I in the tub? Why are you washing dishes with it?’ I can’t rationalize it.”

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