Where is Corey Booker? Why was this contamination not addressed during his term as Mayor of Newark?
13
When Cory Booker was mayor he tolerated rampant corruption in the Newark Watershed Authority that allowed this problem to fester. Another example of his poor executive leadership.
8
Serves us right for turning such a critical component of human life as water over to the minions of the state. Private water companies could never do what bureaucrats have done to our water and survive--unless, of course, they operated as a state sanctioned monopoly, a protected mode of operation that effectively imbibes the same business contaminants as bureaucracies.
2
Another big problem with all that plastic is that I don’t see much plastic recycling in Newark, after working there for 18 years. So much of that stuff will end up on the streets or just stuffed in overflowing trash cans.
And if the bottles have sat in the hot sun for a period of time, either on the street or a loading dock, it’s also not safe to drink. We are in for yet another 90+ degree heatwave period. As you drive into Newark from one of the major highways you see people with bottled water for sale. I can just see some of the enterprising young people taking advantage of this free water to make a few bucks. And I can’t blame them.
3
When was Infrastructure week?
Two other questions - why aren't gallon jugs being distributed to cut down on plastic waste and aren't all the water pipes from sea to shining sea lead pipes?
5
Water is heavy. A gallon of water weighs 8.34 pounds. A volume ounce weighs just a little more than a weight ounce. Grocery stores should be the place where people pick up their free water. Grocers could be compensated in some way.
9
Is this what America has become? Lead in the water in Flint, Michigan and Newark, New Jersey, pockmarked highways, water shortages, daily senseless gun violence in all parts of this enormous country, what next...? I still remember the early 1950s, when for us, children in Stalinist Budapest, a secretly obtained Hershey bar was the symbol of what we dreamed of: American liberty, American prosperity. And then in the late 1950s and early 1960s, as refugees in Montreal we watched the outpouring of energy in a hopeful, optimistic USA, and the conquest of the world by youthful American culture. I deeply feel for you, American sisters and brothers. I hope that you can recover what made you great and be, again, the hope of the world. And it's definitely not Donald Trump's MAGA.
14
Schools tested positive for high Pb levels three years ago yet officials insisted and posted on the Newark website that the water was “absolutely safe to drink”. This remindsme another New Jerseyite, Christine Todd Whitman, who insisted after 9/11 that New York’s air was absolutely safe to breath?
Wrong in both cases. Someone better check New Jersey officials’ credientials.
5
The new EPA will fix this. They'll just redefine lead as a vitamin, or minimally toxic supplement to the water. And anyone who disagrees will be penalized with having to drink the water.
17
This is a problem all around the country. It is a problem that seeks massive investment, on a scale that is the very reason that proves the need for a federal governement
I am sorry that tbe fliters are.not effective, because there is concern over the toxic chemical leaching when plastic is exposed to heat or light, bottled water is no great choice added to the fact that most of it is just filtered water so it may also be lead contaminated.
2
“the culmination of years of neglect”
“Residents ... had been reassured for months by the mayor, Ras Baraka, the head of the water department and other city leaders that the problem was being addressed ...”
“Newark had long denied that the city had a widespread problem with its drinking water, only to reverse course last fall ...”
I’m of the opinion that a jail term of life without parole is barely long enough for those who would knowingly poison thousands of citizens.
6
Solution: Eliminate federal standards.
I assume Trump’s team is working on this.
6
the exact same scenario as flint.
4
Time for massive infrastructure improvements. Jobs. Healthier Americans.
3
@Barrie Grenell
where's the money? firing up the printers again?
1
Tip of the iceberg. Journalists should investigate how many municipal water supplies are contaminated with plastics, nanoparticles, synthetic organic molecules, drugs and drug metabolites, and other potentially toxic substances that represent the byproducts of an unregulated industrial society.
6
So now MORE plastic. WATER FILTERS.
3
Regardless of party, platform, time in office, it never changes. Blathering words with no meaning just to get in or keep power.
It’s a right, not a privilege, to have clean, safe water and we are committed to that,” Mr. Murphy said. Well,clearly the committment is not strong enough.
5
'Leadership' at every level, not matter which party, has failed us time and again. It's long past time for all citizens to revolt against our government(s) and say we're not taking this anymore.
4
Some historians think that lead from pipes is what drove the Roman elites insane and helped bring down the empire.
In the case of Rome it was the elites who were affected. In our case, it appears to be the least powerful among us.
A few years back, we burned lead in our gasoline to keep the valves from knocking. It was everywhere in the environment. "Unleaded" became a synonym for a watered-down version of something, such as 'unleaded coffee' (decaf).
We know we shouldn't put lead in our environment, but can we afford to get rid of it? In spite of all the complaining, at least we got it out of the gasoline. Hopefully the water system is next.
Meanwhile, do carbon filters remove lead from drinking water?
1
@mlbex Activated carbon(Brita, but not all models) and reverse osmosis are your only two options. Be sure to have your water tested at the tap to determine concentrations.
5
Apartment dwellers are notably not eligible for any of these lead mitigation measures.
The reason given is that the internal pipes in our tall apartment buildings can't be made of lead because lead is too heavy to rise vertically this far.
But what about the pipes from the main to the building? What about the ancient fixtures in the building and the potential lead solder used to attach them? None of that is good, but it's made much worse by the corrosive water coming in from the city.
And yet, we get nothing. No test kits, no filters, no bottled water. Lotta kids growing up here and in other tall complexes.
What kind of pull do these apartment building owners have with the city? Oh don't tell me. I think I already know.
My location won't be reading NJ for much longer.
3
@SD The oxide coating on the inside of lead pipes prevents contamination. Some lead pipes are thousands of years old and still in use. If you have a lot of children, check paints and play area soils first as the source.
2
I may be mistaken but I read that the cost of repairing the affected water lines was $50 million. That's a drop in the bucket, no pun intended, in Newark's corrupt budget.
Further confusing ishow the water utility serving Newark and surrounding cities has neglected to do their jobs all of these years. Aren't they responsible in large part for the maintenance and upkeep of the water system?
Where were the regulators that supposedly oversee the utility companies? No engineers on their administrative staffs?
Any qualified professionals in the Newark Health Dept? Don't their duties involve monitoring the water supplied to tens of thousands of their citizens?
As with Flint, Newark's development was grounded in industries that have polluted waterways and water systems across the country. Yet the wake up signal was totally ignored. Odd that noone in the Newark beurocratic corrupt money pit come up with an expensive solution to remedy this problem? Guess they just aren't smart enough to seize on an obvious gold mine opportunity.
The Feds shouldn't have to fix this problem. It rests squarely on the shoulders of the city. A city that has sucked every cent out of its citizens and businesses, notorious corruption at every level of their government, touting redevelopment and resurgence while lying and covering up a disastrous, cancerous situation.
The "good" people of Newark will continue to suffer. However, they too must share the blame for allowing these crooks to run the city.
4
@Nick DiAmante I've had first hand experience at evaluating the corrupt financing of health programs; in one case I was sent there by the White House to find out why a program was failing to achieve anything. 5 Docs sitting around, empty waiting room and bad reput. on the street. BUT the money was flowing through the 'pipe's' of the Democratically controlled city hall was nicely piped into upper echelons of city government and the politicians who lobbied for it were happy.
I recommended either pulling the plug or reformulating the program using a different model. Never found out what the final outcome was.
3
I lived in Brooklyn for 20 years and not once did I have to drink water from a bottle because I found the water from my faucet to be as good as bottled water. I cannot same the same for Florida where where the water from the faucet is simply awful. I am surprised that this is happening in New Jersey. Get rid of the old lead pipes and things might change for Newark.
@Tonjo Grew up in Astoria, and my grandfather insisted on spring water from 'upstate'; Moved around and wound up in Maine where I swim in the pond where Poland Springs drew its water from springs that fed the pond. I can swim along and drink the finest water in the world. I now drink only spring water and have a map to springs from other spring water lovers that enables me to fill a 5 gal. jug should I happen to be in an area with one of those springs.
Someone once said that N.Orlean's water, drawn from the Mississippi has been through ten people.
Where is Booker when we need him?
2
$6T in Iraq and Afghanistan and our infrastructure is crumbling
10
Yet one more reason to be embarrassed to live in NJ.
3
Water pipes all over the nation are aging, rusted, have lead, holes, leaks you name it. It's going to cost probably a trillion dollars, maybe more to fix the problems; plus the logistics of it all. What a nightmare. And it is not going to get better by waiting. We really need some visionary leadership. .... So let's keep spending a trillion dollars on the military and weapons of war while the country falls ever deeper into the banana republic abyss.
13
@Doctor Wo
I agree with you! I hope we can get candidates to address the problem. Several years ago my county government warned that many residents should let their taps flow for several minutes at least because of probable lead contamination, especially in older! buildings.
1
Gee, nowhere in this article do you see the name of Cory Booker, former mayor of Newark. The Dems like to talk about free stuff - perhaps Booker is running on a platform of free lead-tainted water for all.
7
What did Cory Booker know and when did he know it?
8
Bullets and bottled water in Newark, love to hear Ex-Mayor Booker explain this!
7
Bottled water "expires?"
Putting water in plastic bottles makes water toxic?
Do we need further evidence of our greed and stupidity?
3
@Robert Henry Eller
And Nestle and Pepsi are the ones profiting from all these water debacles.
3
The Times sends 3 guys to research and write this story and then the finished product doesn't even mention Cory Booker, who was mayor from 2006-13 and has a long, checkered history with the water delivery system in Newark. Booker, in case Corasaniti, Kilgannon and Schwartz missed it, is running for president. Hard to imagine they couldn't have included him in the story. He could have declared this his latest Spartacus moment and delivered water to that old lady with the bad spine, he is still the senator from NJ, right?
20
Where was Cory Booker in all of this? And he wants to be president? Surely you jest!
11
The story doesn't say what Corey Booker did to solve this problem. He was Mayor until 2013 and must have known about this.
13
These isolated lead pipe infrastructure problems across the nation aren't the fault of one elected official or their [local] policies. The Obama Admin was no more at fault for the lead pipe crisis in Flint than Trump, Christie or Booker for the lead pipe crisis in Newark.
Infrastructure must be addressed by Congress. The POTUS doesn't have to take the lead [sic] to begin addressing a national issue that's on the verge of becoming a crisis.
8:54A CDT
8/15/19
3
Where is FEMA? Where is part-time Jersey resident Donald Trump?
It would be such an easy political win and home run for a President who has been accused of racism, (and has absurdly claimed to have done more for African-Americans than any other President in history ) to fix at least the bottled water situation. But he is clearly too dumb to take the opportunity to help himself politically, make the Democratic NJ politicians look bad, and actually help these poor people. You would think he'd enjoy sticking it to the Democrats and "lame stream media". Not a smart guy, who could, by the way, also contrast his efforts to Obama's failure to fix Flint.
As for the Democrats, Corey Booker ought to take his campaign to his home in NEWARK(!) and highlight the massive infrastructure-mess we have in the U.S. and what he would do to fix it.
Why aren't Amazon and Walmart shipping cases of bottled water for free to Newark residents, Stop &Shops, bodegas, etc.? As the richest families in the world, don't Jeff Bezos and the Walton family see the opportunity to do well by doing good? A phone call from the administration could get it done.
7
Sen. Harris, The Prosecutor-in-Chief, should visit Newark and get with the community. She needs to get her “gotcha” lines ready for Booker and the next debate. (Wait for him to take a drink of water on camera and then ask If the community in Newark had safe water yet?)
Warren, Sanders, too need to show up.
Warren will have a plan for water in the future.
Sanders will blame big business and want to drill everyone a well.
Biden loves the community, but we not show up; however he will be open to bus in water, but only if the local government wants it.
3
Seems that MAGA plan is starting to take shape.
1
If a government can't provide safe drinking water out of the pipes, a citizen should not have to pay taxes.
4
One can't help but wonder how hundreds of other towns and cities have this same problem with lead water pipes . Seems as if they are ignoring the dangers, or they're simply not aware of them. While we are totally absorbed in never ending wars for fun, profits, and presidential legacies, America's antiquated infrastructure is crumbling, and proving to be highly dangerous. Don't we have the wrong priorities here?
7
Always enough money to be reactive, never enough to be proactive. As long as infrastructure is a political football, this will be the new norm.
7
"Marc Edwards, a professor in the engineering department at Virginia Tech . . . said lead most commonly gets into drinking water through lead pipes that run from water mains into homes."
In Flint, the vast majority, but not all, the lead was in pipes owned by individual property owners, not by the city.
Generally, the service lines are after the meter and shut-off valve. Those lines are not usually owned by the city, or water company and are the responsibility of the property owner. On the West Coast, all those lines were required to be replace, at the property owners expense, decades ago.
Is the lead contamination coming from pipes owned by individuals? Can we get a little clear reporting on who exactly owns and is responsible for the lead pipes in New Jersey?
10
@Michael H. If the builders were REQUIRED to install lead pipes all those years ago, as stated in the article, then the owner should not have to pay for their replacement - especially since the current owner likely had nothing to do with the building's construction. The government that required the installation of those pipes should pay.
@Michael H.
FTA:
It has yet to be conclusively proved why the water became more corrosive, Mr. Olson said, but a city contractor noted that in 2015 Newark had tried to address a different issue with contaminants and “they adjusted their treatment” in ways that made the water more acidic.
“This change in water chemistry may have been responsible for Newark levels being so high now,” he said.
A Best By Date is not the same thing as an Expired By date. WHY is no one mentioning this? Best By is used to move product. Expired By is about safety.
9
The governor says "We want to be out ahead of this.” Aren't they in fact quite a few years behind already? They admitted after years of denial that the city has a serious lead problem, and then they gave away tens of thousands of tap-water filters -- which didn't work. And how can water have a "best-by date"?
1
If Newark city officials are incompetent to manage the city’s water supply, why should we believe that they are competent to manage the city’s public schools, a far more complex task?
3
Water full of lead because leaders don't want tax dollars to go to viable and needed infrastructure upgrades? No problem, just throw plastic bottles all over the landscape. That'll help distract from the problem!
16
There are very few standards that bottled water must comply with. How do we know the bottled water is safe to drink?
10
New Jersey has high State and Local taxes and they do offer many services to their residents but the aging infrastructure needs addressing. They have made the New Jersey Turnpike very driveable and safer. But this is not Newark or Flint alone this is a huge problem for many major cities in this country.
That said, this needs three steps; the first is taxation, the second is an investment in infrastructure and third is regulation. Together we can.
The United States has lacked the will for too many decades to invest in our infrastructure, we have mostly destroyed regulations that guarantee both clean air and clean water.
The why is the biggest problem, that too many do not see, hear or heed. Our Legislatures and Judiciary are controlled by the power of money, these individuals do not want to share their wealth, no taxes. That is why trump has passed his tax cut almost exclusively for the wealthy. The very wealthy who comprise his cabinet as well, that is why we are destroying regulations. The rich need to make money and keep their money not care about us, the workers, the citizens or the planet. This is about money and who keeps their money and who has no money nor say in the transaction.
12
Everyone rightly points out that this is an infrastructure problem. Few politicians have properly addressed it because solutions means big $. As to Cory Booker’s role in the problem—the infrastructure was collapsing for a long time including the period he was Mayor. Then he was Senator. Now he’s presidential candidate running on a healthcare platform. Ironic.
11
There is an inherent problem in a country where billionaires have five homes and a dozen cars while whole cities don’t have drinkable water. That’s what happens when the rich are not taxed progressively in order to redistribute the wealth of the country. A month’s worth of Facebook’s profits could replace the entire water system of Newark and then some.
52
If we had a functioning Congress, imagine the tax revenue we might have had if all of the stock market trades this past week had a tax on them. Earmarked for infrastructure needs. To say nothing about the deceleration effect on trading a progressive tax structure might provide; $1 per share traded over....200, but $10 per share over a 1000 shares..
And a state, local sugar tax might help pay to dig up those service lines to homes- and provide jobs - for teens that now have to sign up for student loans.
Democrats have compromised for decades on spending caps, trade offs. It’s time Republicans realized they need to compromise on new revenue streams. Or we can keep giving away welfare checks to farmers and free water to urban residents. Both the products of government ....lapses.
19
It’s difficult to hold down your job as senator when you’re running for president. But where was Cory Booker on this problem all these years? And where is he now on the problem?
He claims he lives in an impoverished neighborhood in Newark, so he must’ve been aware of the problem. Well, being aware and doing something about it are two different things entirely.
31
@David J Ann insightful observation.
Perhaps Mr. Booker was busy with his George Norcross fundraising efforts (June 2019). Now part of a broader review that will likely yield zero meaningful accountability by a politically compromised and conflicted Government, entities affiliated with Mr. Norcross business interests allegedly received more than $1Billion in preferential tax subsidies with conveniently lax oversight justifying such a bloated taxpayer funded award. Along with other pilfered tax revenue that could have instead gone to crumbling NJ infrastructure and mitigating the ongoing fiscal and environmental crisis facing the State, Mr. Booker appears slow to respond when it’s about the disparity in Newark but quick to defend a very disappointing term of service overall. Seems his brother, and array of shared Chris Christie related donors made out great though! Might they be drinking Trump branded bottled water?
13
@Underhiseye, I can see how single use plastic bottles are environmentally threatening. But so is lead laced water. So here’s the choice, plastic water bottles or unsafe water. Think of all the ways our species is so self-destructive.
Dinosaurs lasted hundreds of million years. Through no fault of their own, they met their demise from outer space, an asteroid. We on the other hand....not as smart as we think. I don’t see a hundred million years in our future, when we’re on the hairy edge of extinction, a decision away.
3
@David J
Booker was having a Spartucus moment
4
it's interesting that there is not one mention in this article of Corey Booker, former mayor and current presidential candidate.
35
@Stan
No mention of Corey, Chris Christie and the other politicians in the state? They have an Association of Mayors , governors who meet regularly to discuss issues. Did the mayor never talk to the so called leaders in Flint Michigan? What do they do all day?
There was a template from Flint, this shouldn't be happening but once again it is
You may not like them but Bernie, Warren have been constantly talking about this extreme wealth and they are only taking money form real people. The other candidates ie Corey while Mayor has taken money from Wall Street and now people in Newark are paying the price. However the new mayor appears to be confused and not surrounded by people of value who could be of assistance.
9
@Stan
Come now, @Stan, give Cory Booker a break: he was so busy colluding with Governor Christie and other corporate education reform privateers to "disrupt,"( i.e. privatize) the Newark public schools, and destroy the local teachers union, that he couldn't possibly be concerned with petty matters like safe drinking water.
Priorities, priorities...
3
By world standards or even American standards Newark is not a poor city. If the federal government won't pay to fix your water system, fix it yourself. Make some of the thousands of People collecting welfare and require them to work on the water system. Reduce some of the corruption to pay for it. Move money in the budget. The problem is that Newark to the posterchild of dependent welfare cities.
16
Municipal water supplies are a monopoly, you don't get a choice. You get what they provide. Just like electricity, you get what whoever in your address provides. You don't get to choose who provides cable you don't get to choose too often who pretends to represent you. Most of those people live anywhere but where you do.
They have legislated themselves outside your problems. They have healthcare you will never have, benefits you can dream of, and they gerrymander your vote away so you have no voice. They get elected time after time and make you believe they represent you. They will never know you because they have never lived like you do. They do not care. You do not have enough money to make them care. Neither party cares, they hate government until they cash the check we pay for. Until they reap the benefits they allocated to themselves. Until they get the retirement check you will never see. But they need your gerrymandered vote until your vote does not count because they made sure it wouldn't.
8
How can one write about a years long problem in Newark, which threatens the health of its citizens, and not mention Corey Booker?
From 1998 to 2012 Corey Booker served first as a City Councilman and then as a two term Mayor.
Fourteen long years.
42
@Barooby
I have no idea why Mr. Booker is in the race anyway. As you stated 14 years is a long time to do nothing in any position he has held. He is a celebrity mayor backed by Wall Street. No intention of doing anything but getting his face in the paper.
However with the new mayor what in the world was he thinking by not addressing this issue a year ago? Why were these filters not tested before giving them out? Who is in this cabinet that no one spoke up and addressed this serious issue. Power corrupts and now once again the people are suffering. Seniors standing out in the heat for bottled water.
Why isn't there a lead problem in the other neighborhood's. We all wonder but no the truth
13
The U.S. is becoming a third world country with a first world GDP.
25
@American Yes drinkable water is not a luxury, it's a right. There is nothing more fundamental than water for human life. I never want to read one more story like this.
Aged lead pipes in Newark ? Surely the same aged pipes can be found in most north east cities and towns. Perhaps if we weren't spending a trillion bucks on war we could fix all this.
29
@Thomas
You are correct, lead service lines from water mains to homes can be found in most older US cities. And they are the homeowners' responsibility in Newark and all the other cities. And this has been a known homeowner issue for decades.
To replace a service line can cost from $5K to $20K. That may be an amount of money that a homeowner may be strapped to pay, but that doesn't then make it collectively a federal, state or even local responsibility. What next, someone's roof needs replacing and we all have to pay?
3
CLEAN WATER -- Add that to the "Endangered Species" List !!!
13
Wasn’t Corey Booker Mayor of Newark? Hmmmm....
20
Corey Booker for President!
4
I wish journalists writing on this issue would, out of journalistic honesty, explain to their readers that Federal levels today are much more restrictive than when I (and others over 45 years old) grew up in the 1970s. The fact is that nearly everyone over 45 years old that grew up in an urban city experienced much higher lead levels than currently found in Newark, Flint, or any city that now uses modern methods of chemical treatment to reduce the leaching of the 1970s lead pipes. Yes, I do not wish on the children of Flint or Newark, the brain damage that everyone over 45 years old went through, but this type of shock and awe journalism needs to end.
11
@DoctorRPP
Utilizing your logic we could conceivably pave the way for WW3.
After all we've been through two World Wars already, what is all the fuss about #3?
Don't we have modern methods in place to prevent World War?
Haven't we placed "very smart people" in positions to protect us from World War?
Or, have we placed people in our wheelhouse who may have consumed far too much lead tainted water?
And listened to far too many dishonest and ethically insane journalists.
Like, say,,,Tucker Carlson.
1
Clean water is a matter of knowing the physics and chemistry of the problem, appropriating the funds and doing the work. Plenty of villages, towns and cities have gotten this done over the past 100 years, Those which have solved the risk are ‘guilty’ of ignorance, poverty and reluctance to address it. Folks looking to score points by criticizing mayors have a point. Moreover, it is the voters and the other city officials who share the blame for the vulnerability and effects upon children.
2
@Suburban Cowboy, you make a great point, which is those who have failed to get the water tap chemistry right also tend to be the same elected city officials that fail at most every other responsibility in that city.
8
@DoctorRPP
Last week the NYT had a story about the polluted water in a small village in New Jersey. At one time it was a beautiful pond now because of Governor Christie cutting funds the towns had no funds to work with and I the people didn't have the knowledge to address the issue.
I guess those elected GOP officials have failed their small towns to get anything right also. Ignorance is not a color blind issue. It is alive and well with white and minority representatives.
1
We will send a man to Mars before we remove the lead from the water of Flint Michigan or Newark New Jersey. Not because it is impossible but because it is possible with a cost that has no apparent return. The underclass of America is not worth the investment. The risk of no return is stacked high. A flash in the pan in the life of the politician is all it will ever garner. Once that political flame has vanished, pure nitrous will not bring it back. There is not a politician alive who will return to Flint. Not a single presidential candidate will look into the eyes of the people of Newark. They are on their own. Expired water and all.
14
@Zane Kuseybi, lovely rhetoric, but you do realize that if you are 45 years old or older that the lead levels you drank each day from the faucet was far higher than what is currently experienced in Newark or Flint.
5
We have always had the privilege of drinking our own well water. I carry it with me every week to Charlotte. Never an after taste.
1
The concept of access to potable, clean water as a basic human right is laudable but is not a reality on this earth. Historically, access to water has been a source of conflict for eons.
Many people rely on "private" well water. Wells are expensive to dig and require plumbing, pumps, maintenance, and in many cases filters.
The costs of supplying water to living beings are high. A civilized society pays attention and cares for and conserves its water supply.
In case of public water supplies in the United States, the complexities are many. Paying for potable water is going to become more expensive as the environmental degradation worsens.
8
This is WATER. Unless the tamper-evident seal is broken, the only potential contamination from exceeding a “best by” date would be from leeching of the bottle’s plastic, which is probably negligible. But even if that were somehow meaningful, compared to LEAD it would seem an acceptable risk.
13
Best-by dates do not mean that it is bad or undrinkable. Why don’t people understand what these dates are: a sales tactic to get Americans to throw away perfectly good products and buy new ones?
17
To an extent, ‘best by’ is ‘better to buy again’. However, it would seem logical that foods and drinks do deteriorate in quality and safety terms over time. And presumably the legal counsel has weighed in too with a recommendation so that the onus shifts partially, likely not wholly, onto the consumer. I’d suggest simply post the production date on the package and leave it to the consumer to deliberate.
2
Given Amazon’s partnership with the US postal service, it’s tax preferential status, and the number of workers/customers derived from Newark; can’t Newark and Amazon work in concert to arrange direct customer delivery of bottled water during this emerging crisis? Corporations put their hand out to overburdened thirsty taxpayers, can Amazon extend a hand in aid too? Newark deserves our urgent and efficient attention to this overwhelming crisis as school is about to begin. How can kids focus on math or reading when they can’t secure basic human needs that should be a right to all.
Plenty of NJ tax subsidies to not needy corporations that sell Opioids (Teva) but no money for clean water, sound transportation and highway systems, safe public streets or desegregated Equal public schools. The nearby ports are some of the busiest and most profitable in the world. Because of Newark’s water insecurity, perhaps cargo ships should reroute and avoid taxing crumbing infrastructure? This is no way to run a broken down state, from a villa in Italy.
There is clean water in Mr. Murphy’s home county of Monmouth; where Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi enjoy estates. How is this not an issue of race and ongoing economic oppression? Separate and not equal, it seems. Still.
12
It is not just about money. Certainly there is a budget for the water system. It is usually a matter of focus and accountability driven by the power, awareness and noisiness of the particular constituency.
4
@Suburban Cowboy It’s only about Money.
NJ is a cancerous cesspool of well known corruption. Local towns and municipalities are mini Kingdoms that feed off overburdened taxpayers, pitting public against private workers to drive dissension and division. Most struggle to survivor let alone fight back. Small Fiefdoms Only too Happy to pass unending public financed already rich school referendums and profit generating construction projects to the donor and business base, but no money to remediate and rebuild crumbing water infrastructure, Stat. My rich NJ town wasting vital tax dollars to fund a shiny new totally unnecessary Government building and improved Schools that should instead be consolidated with neighboring towns, while Newark falls apart and babies go without clean water and safe schools. Every tiny Kingdom passing the dirty water problem and environmental calamity on to the next poor weary generation. In Texas, Can your dog swim in a local lake or river and not die from toxic contamination?
You’re right, how loud can the voices of Newark be when residents are already dodging unencumbered gun violence and the disparate impact of long neglected bias and discrimination that destroys economic autonomy and a thriving community. Who has energy left to fight for clean water we already paid for, of all basic human rights. Perhaps that’s the point.
10
@Underhiseye - It is about Race and Poverty -- Maybe All the Newark Residents should head up to Mr. Trumps Golf Club where Clean water is plentiful enough to keep the Greens beautiful ...
8
The Flint lead crisis began when the city changed its source of water, and the new source caused the lead in service lines to homes to more easily dissolve into the water flowing through them.
Little known to the public, Newark used to supply all of its own water from reservoirs in northern Passaic County. A few years ago, it began to supplement this water with water from a different source, Elizabethtown Water Company,, which sourced its water from various rivers and streams, including the Raritan River. River water requires an entirely different treatment regime. Wonder if this is an underlying reason for Newark to be having a lead crisis.
19
Quite frankly this is no surprise. Since paying taxes and supporting government that is supposed to help take care of people has ranked right up there with nimby what does anyone expect. We have been told for generations that taxes just take and don't improve our lives. Clean water, clean air, those rank right up there with not until it happens to me. Before that, I don't want to pay, I don't care and I'm somehow exempt from these issues. No taxes for floods, no taxes for education, no taxes for clean water, no taxes for clean air.
Eliminate the EPA then we can all be fortified by all the pollutants that can be pumped into our air and water but the shareholders will get their return on their investment because above all via our Supreme Court and now our government that is all that matters. New Jersey follows Flint follows all the rest of us. But they will make it onto the Forbes list and have a lot of zeroes in their bank accounts that proves their worth! Meanwhile they will have a brain-damaged constituency ready to vote for them because they no longer have the power to think.
12
"But officials had to halt the distribution temporarily after discovering that some of the water exceeded its best-by date."
One would like to be more optimistic, but if Newark politicians think this is an effective strategy perhaps the residents of Newark should consider moving to Oregon.
Its assisted suicide laws work a lot faster.
2
I went to Rutgers in Newark for a year long internship program at the end of my bachelor's degree. I received a fine education and now work elsewhere.
The water I remember being undrinkable however. NJ has poor tasting water but Newark water literally tasted like a slew of toxic waste and sand. This was years ago and I'm not surprised to say at the least. There's probably high levels of other heavy metals as well.
Maybe we should take a script from China's playbook and ward off the next recession with an infastructure bill.
22
I suppose we should thank Congress for its massive tax cut for the wealthy and its tacit support of trade policies which will lead to the next recession.
On the one hand, obviously a recession is no fun.
On the other hand, during a recession, construction costs are much cheaper, which makes it a great time to spend on infrastructure. Really, by hastening the next economic downturn, Congress has done us all a great favor by speeding up the time when we'll elect leaders who actually will invest in the nationa's crumbling infrastructure -- and at bargain prices to taxpayers, too.
12
@Michael
And how, pray tell, is local incompetence by Newark in bungling the treatment and delivery of safe drinking water (just like in Flint) a national problem? Further, how is a homeowner's problem, in this case lead service lines and interior plumbing, something for Congress to address? Next, will we expect Congress to take care of every instance of asbestos or mold or crabgrass at every home across America?
9
@Common Sense Having owned a house in a town quite close to Newark, I can assure you that neither I nor any of my neighbors had any idea of what lay between our basements and the water main. We paid for our house inspections and acted on what we were told. Mold, mildew, asbestos, radon, knob-and-tube wiring, you name it. But lead service lines were never an issue.
So it looks to me like the water companies, at some point in the past, successfully pushed this responsibility onto the homeowner, doubtless so they could evade responsibility for replacing the toxic lead pipes they had originally installed.
This is very much an issue for state and national government, since the health damage caused by lead pipes is a direct consequence of the government’s failure to regulate effectively, even if the ultimate blame lies with the water companies themselves. It is also the responsibility of the state to certify house inspectors, without whose testing and recommendations the prospective buyer is powerless. Serious change is needed here.
16
@Global Charm
But Government is the problem, we need less of it, they are just circumventing progress. Government just costs us money and provides no benefit, it is just police, teachers. Oh, wait, not really. It is the legislators who take and take and the rest of us pay and pay. Now we have less government because of less taxes. It's all good, those New Jersey residents and that Flint population should just ingest all that lead so the rest of us don't have to. Oh, wait, anyone connected to any municipal water line is just standing in line. But it causes brain damage. Somehow I think that is what those anti-government, government paid politicians count on. How is it that we allowed those who will never want take over our government? Maybe it is the lead in the water. We vilified education and down-played lead poisoning, anyone besides me see a correlation?
4
Blame the GOP for the pollution there. They nationally pollute the air and water with coal and fossil fuel damage by supporting this toxic product. Newark residents needs to never support any of them again . It won’t get any better either until the Dems get back in power . We need to take more tax money from the rich whose businesses damaged the water with lead in the first place and make them pay to fix it.
5
@D.j.j.k. While I agree with the premise that the rich need to better share the money that the working class earns for them, I don’t think we can lay the blame at the feet of the rich for the use of lead pipes decades ago. We blame republicans for ongoing assaults on regulations that protect public health and safety.
7
@Stephanie Wood
They are still a better choice than the GOP look at what’s leading our country now. He is polluting it so much we will have masks on before his term is up. At least the Dems run on saving the environment which should be your number one concern.
Anyone surprised that lead and plumbing go together should remember that the word "plumbing" and "lead" come from the same Latin word "plumbum".
6
When will Newark buffer the water to neutralize the acidic conditions?
5
Sounds like the US could use another tax cut or maybe some more tech company worship. I'm sure they'll be happy to promise you they will fix it all with an app is you just give them a few billion.
7
The testing of water in Newark should be broadened to include commercial locations. If you’ve ever bought a coffee at Newark Penn Station, or drunk from a water fountain at the Prudential Center or Red Bull Arena, you have been drinking Newark water. The airport I’m not so sure of, since it’s partly in Newark and partly in Elizabeth.
It’s also something that the restaurant owners in the Ironbound might want to know about, if only to reassure their customers.
8
Hundreds of billions for Pentagon contractors, wars, bailouts to Wall Street, tax breaks for the rich, foreign aid to despotic countries, and the cost of Trump's constant golf vacations, but our water supply is increasingly unsafe and bottled water itself is unsafe for the drinker and the environment.
And as The Donald guts clean air and water regulations and agencies, you can count on an epidemic of unsafe water coming soon to a water supply near you. So much winning!
Make America GAG Again!
19
@Steve Davies
Donald doesn't have the brain power or attention span to comprehend this unless it is in illustrated form. He's not the problem, he was bankrupt before he was elected. All those acting appointees who face no scrutiny are the short sighted who will never have to live with what they are doing.
People got what they elected, someone who does not think he answers to anyone and who has ensconced himself with every shield the presidency allows.
A pig in a poke is still a pig and when you inflate an ego like his to that office you should expect nothing less. Where I despair is all the rest we should have been able to count on who never said a word. That he had no concept of his oath and the trust the office holds was no surprise. The rest of them have no shame.
1
Another great reason to use our valuable resources to fix our domestic problems first before we give free health care and other benefits to economic immigrants.
3
........."The lead crisis in Newark, a city of 285,000 people, had been brewing for years, but escalated sharply over the weekend after federal officials issued a scathing letter warning about the safety of the drinking water and urging city officials to take more aggressive steps.".........
Uh? a "Federal Environmental Official" from a Republican corrupted E.P.A. decides to aggravate a scandalous water problem in a City that the Democratic candidate Booker came from?
Is there anyone who doesn't see something strange about that? It has the Trumpites dirty tricks squad fingerprints all over it.
4
@PATRICK
No, I see nothing strange in the EPA calling out Newark's mishandling of this situation, especially when Mayor Baraka has the audacity to deflect from his administration's incompetence in managing drinking water treatment by calling for massive federal funding to fix a local problem.
4
The usual posse of snarky and useless right-wing (Republican) trolls are out blaming everything you can think of on Democrats. I remind people that is was the Republican governor and legislature in Michigan that created the Flint water problem. Fortunately, Trump's infrastructure plan, which may appear by his fourth term (?), will solve all these problems!
5
@Thomas Zaslavsky
This, however, is a disaster presided over by Democrats, including presidential candidate and former Mayor Cory Booker. The NJ legislature and the Newark City Hall have been Democrat-run for a long, long time.
12
@watchdog
Blaming Democrats for N.J. corruption may be accurate but only partially. Have you forgotten Gov. Christie, Republican?
3
I thought Sen. Booker got elected because of Mayor Booker’s superb work fixing Newark?
Note to Mayor Pete!
15
Let’s just keep subsidizing corporations, to the tune of $20B just for oil and gas, instead of fixing our infrastructure.
Come on, there’s gotta be some pipe or plumbing company out there willing to bribe politicians to give them a contract to fix these pipes.
6
And, um, who was the mayor of Newark and is now running for President? Is it the same Cory Booker who played fast and loose with the Water Authority? Not exactly Spartacus, is he.
10
But let's keep bombing and rebuilding other countries' water systems, while U.S. Citizens are left to drink lead-poisoned water.
6
Best Buy date! For water?
4
Great job Cory Booker
6
Regarding lead;
“Other than poisoning and killing people, it’s a great plumbing material,”
- Marc Edwards, a professor in the engineering department at Virginia Tech
2
Et tu, "Infrastructure Week"?
Can the government be sued for lack of infrastructure rebuilding? Can we stop paying for water? Can we stop paying taxes? What exactly is getting done? Each state each major city is on their way. Instead we have do nothing people ripping off American workers. I Hope your children thank you for the world you leave them.
4
Newark's water comes from the Wanaque Reservoir, which provides water to a lot of towns. One, the Borough of Bloomingdale did extensive tests of the water quality in 2017 and found on 0.0068 parts per billion of lead, meeting the MCL standard. The attributed it to "corrosion of household plumbing systems, of natural deposits leaching from wood preservatives".
All of which leads me to believe the problem is endemic to Newark's failure to compel home owners to replace lead pipes with copper ones.
In other words, this may be a guilt trip for Corey Booker, former Mayor of Newark.
10
@Cali Sol The article indicates the primary source may be municipal supply piping, not pipes and fixtures inside the house, which can also leach lead.
You know, “best by” dates only exist to allow retailers to rotate stock.
It’s hard to imagine that bottled water somehow “spoils” if it’s a few months past that date.
We’re not dealing with milk in the supermarket here.
12
The idea of giving out individual plastic bottles of water is nuts. Tap water is not safe in MOST of the world. In these places there is a huge infrastructure for delivering water in the kind of large containers used for office water coolers. In poorer areas, tank trucks deliver clean water and people come out to fill large plastic containers. Making people go to distribution centers to collect individual bottles of water is crazy. Isn't this an emergency? Shouldn't FEMA be delivering water to neighborhoods? One more step in the decline of America.
9
This is not good for the business community of Newark. I doubt if the city of Newark or the entire state of New Jersey can find the funds to completely redo the water system of Newark. The hardest hit are the children of Newark who are mostly black and simply cannot afford to buy bottled water. I am waiting for Phil Murphy to come up with a solution. I am here in Nevada where water is clean and scarce and full of minerals but that is another issue.
1
Didn't Mark Zuckerberg donate $100 million of free money to Newark, schools back in 2010 ? After seeing the failed results of that, why is anyone surprised now of the failed local leadership in this basic area of government?
6
A couple of points from the Flint investigations:
1. The lead wasn't found in the water but in the blood of children being tested for it. There are a variety of reasons; including the most impt. which is pica from eating lead paint in the old houses with the problem.
2. The homeowners, being mostly Black and low income had the responsibility of replacing lead feeder lines from the iron mains into the house. The city, being mostly Dem. and Black, looked the other way and didn't enforce the requirement.
3. Lead pipes have been used for thousands of year with no corrosion since a protective oxide forms. In Flint, a water purification chemical was put into a new water supply and it caused the oxide to flake off and potentially exposing the water to some lead contamination.
Solution was simple. Replace, at public expense---remember Flint is technically 'bankrupt' so State and federal monies were tapped. Home owners were never held accountable and got free copper connectors. Pica problem to the best of my knowledge was never solved.
3
@Cali Sol I should add, the lead feeder pipes were to be replaced with copper ones.
The underlying problem may be one of public financing of home mortgages for people who couldn't maintain or improve the house.
This has all the makings of a great infrastructure job! We have been promised an infrastructure bill to put people to work, well why not Newark's water supply system? Why not rebuild it with federal money? Safe drinking water is more important than the tax refund for the 1%. Repeal the Trump Tax Plan and use that money for clean water systems in Newark and Flint!
16
@Patrick Or take someone else's money and spend it on essentials for people who once voted and could vote for you again.....did I get Bernie's message out o.k.?
1
@Patrick
And what about the thousands of other cities across the US, mostly older, urban cities and town, that have the same 'problem' but have managed it by properly treating and delivering their drinking water?
Just like mindless defense spending is beloved by Republicans, the Democrats love mindless, ill-thought out infrastructure program that are rife for corruption and cronyism. And this issue of replacing lead service pipes has a high probability of turning in to such a boondoggle.
2
Can’t help but notice that several of the areas directly adjacent to Newark Airport tested positive for high lead levels, yet the airport itself was not tested. Airlines are pumping a lot of Newark’s water into the potable water tanks of those planes every day. Maybe go with a can of seltzer instead of the coffee!
Not good.
5
@Matt Chase you do not drink coffee or tea on any airplane.
Which Democrat running for office was mayor of Newark?
Can you imagine the venom that would be pored on Trump if had been the mayor of Newark?
44
Once again a city governed by Democrats for decades cannot even provide basic necessities to their constituents.
This water issue didn’t just appear overnight and several months ago the Mayor Baraka of Newark was adamant there wasn’t an issue.
29
Yes. But maybe people are saving their energy since do you really think America is going to elect another black president right now?
1
@Eric
Corey Booker.
4
Water quality is the job of the public works department, not the mayor or the senator or any other elected official. Their job is to provide the PW department with the resources to do their job, and rules to follow, and to make sure their employees follow the rules. In California, we were doing mandatory testing for lead and copper in the water more than 25 years ago. It was not easy, it was expensive and it was time consuming, but we identified where problems were and addressed them. Most of the problem came where there were still old copper water services welded with lead, and the water was “agressive” enough to cause leaching of these materials into the domestic supply. It isn’t rocket science. It is a good case for robust regulations.
45
Sanest comment so far.
3
@Leftonthecoast
Seems that wasn't the case in Flint where the Republican governor was blamed for the mess.
1
Hm. It’s almost as if choosing candidates based on race alone isn’t a good strategy.
8
And what leading presidential contender was the mayor of Newark when this problem ensued?
10
@MIKEinNYC Corey Booker
3
Where oh where is Michael Moore when ya need him? Well Democrat’s, is this criminal? Your silence speaks volumes. Spartacus, what day you?
3
Lead leaching into the water supply of a major city--in amounts that seriously threaten health , especially the cognitive development of children--is obviously a serious problem. But it is not a unique problem. It is part of the much broader problem of an aging infrastructure that plagues our entire country--and covers piping and roads and bridges and structures and waterways , our entire surrounding environment in which we play, work, and breathe. Imagine the disaster of a bridge collapse, a buckling road, a sinkhole, water that breaks through a barrier and floods a community---there is so much that has to be repaired and brought up to snuff.
Early in his presidency, preceded by campaign promises, our president did mention infrastructure repair as something he would attend to. Democrats agreed they would work together with the president to work something out.
But our president has put this aside . He seems to spend his time playing golf, watching Fox News, and tweeting insults at critics. Infrastructure maintenance and repair is on the back burner---all the way in the rear--and growing children must shower in lead-laced water , mothers must cook in this foul water, and buy drinking water out of their scarce resources.
15
Looking to politicians for answers and remedies are no longer logical. They are and have been part of the problem.
In generations to come there will need to be drastic change to how our democracy works or in the case here in NJ and Flint and numerous other areas in America don't work.
4
What will happen with the “expired” bottle water? The FDA says that after long-term storage, bottled water's appearance, smell or taste may change somewhat, but the water will still be safe to consume. Bottled water manufacturers are permitted to put expiration dates on their labels, however, these dates are meant to be indicators of quality, not safety.
16
When a country invests in millionaires and large corporations instead of infrastructure and the common good, it physically falls apart.
Granted, Newark NJ is one of the more prominently mismanaged cities in the USA, but the right-wing refusal to adequately fund the federal government - and the aid to states and cities it provides - since 1981 has contributed significantly to America's nationwide infrastructure collapse.
Taxes are the price of a decent civilization.
Raise taxes now - especially on the tax-dodging class - to pay for infrastructure.
106
@Socrates
"Granted, Newark is one of the more prominently mismanaged cities in the USA..." You could have stopped there because you identified Newark's problem. It hasn't been a funding problem so much as it has been the use of those funds. The mayor's office has been occupied for decades by do nothing and/or corrupt managers.
3
It’s so sad that people will line up and get a measly two cases of water, small bottles at that. In this hot humid weather that will last a household one day. Also sad, those cases of water go for 3.99 or so at the grocery store, but people can’t afford to buy it.
11
"The water exceeded its best-by date"! That's nonsense. Water doesn't spoil. The packager puts that on the bottle to persuade people to throw out their bottled water and buy more. A scam.
108
@Jonathan Katz
The packaging can break down and affect the taste of the water. It's unlikely the water will become unhealthy to drink unless there was some contamination in the water or packaging to begin with. I'd prefer to drink tap water but then again I don't live in Newark.
The broader point is that we refuse to tax ourselves enough to maintain our infrastructure. Expect many more Flints and Newarks soon. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. For some reason, you just can't educate the American people.
21
And shame on Newark for stopping distribution of those bottles. Ridiculous!
6
@koyaanisqatsi
Actually Newark excess tax proof: too many federal buildings/institutions.
2
“Free water”, very amusing.
Lotta bottled water companies getting nice and rich out of this. Got to love America, the inverted triangle; the people get poisoned, their taxes get used to buy bottled water and the CEOs pocket the proceeds. “Freedom”.
24
Has former Mayor, Cory Booker, interrupted his Presidential campaign, and dramatically rushed home to Newark to pass out lead-free bottled water yet?
19
@Richard he'll do that after he returns the Trump family's campaign contributions
4
Dig deeper folks - certainly it’s China or Russia! Just ask Cory Booker! Wake up!
10
With the serious problems with plastics that we are all very well aware of, is providing plastic liter bottles shrink wrapped in plastic the best or only option? What about reusable 5 gallon containers - preferably glass, but plastic would still work as they could be re-used. It seems silly to just add to another problem while trying to solve this problem. Even gallon containers would be better as it uses much less plastic than these small bottles. Does no one think anymore?
62
@Laura Do you have any idea what a 5 gallon glass container filled with water weighs? Do you realize how much energy is required to manufacture glass? Do you know glass costs a lot more than plastic? Enough of the plastic nonsense.
5
@Me
Water weighs 8 pounds per gallon or 40 pounds for 5 gallons. It is reasonable. It is also sold in 5 gallon plastic containers in many many places. It is far more efficent than small bottles. Just do it.
20
@Laura Well said. In the aftermath of the 1989 (World Series) earthquake, those of us who lived within a mile of the epicenter were extremely grateful for the convenience of 5-gallon containers which we refilled as needed. It would take 40 individual 'disposable' plastic bottles to make up that 5 gallon container of water. Who would bother to refill 40 individual 17-oz bottles in such a situation?
14
Didn't they check the new treatment to see if it had an effect on the pipes?
Entire regions of Newark now have unsafe water. This is third world stuff.
How can people be this incompetent? Oh wait, the NYC Housing Authority made up checking and approval of lead paint levels, which is why--among other reasons--it is now under federal oversight.
Any city where the authorities put people's lives in danger because of gross negligence needs to be put under federal management.
8
another reason to live in upstate NJ, clean water
3
You can’t drink tap water anywhere in NJ. It’s disgusting.
Wait, isn't Newark now ruled by Democrats, as it has been ruled by Democrats for endless decades? Will they be held accountable? Or will they be given a pass based on their party affiliation? Do Democrats, liberals and progressives always get a free pass after they fail to provide the very basics for their own constituents simply based on their phony and self serving politics?
13
Fair enough, but remember who the governor of New Jersey was for many years as this festered. Major infrastructure projects are almost always state projects, not city projects. Look at the whole picture. It’s our system.
8
@paul
Either everybody gets a free pass or nobody gets a free pass. And if nobody gets a free pass and we are going to clean everything up, where and how do we start?
Most of the people that once made Newark prosperous moved to the suburbs and made the suburbs prosperous, with considerable help from Uncle Sam. But little was done to help Newark cope with this transition; it was like most of our cities and had trouble.
Rural areas are often ruled by Republicans, who should be held accountable for how they are doing, which is often worse than many cities.
2
If only politicians has a use-by date.
15
America, the greatest third world country in the world.
No excuses for this mess. Fix it, and fix it now. And compensate those harmed by these morally bankrupt, incompetent so-called leaders.
As for getting it right as fast as we can (per the current governor). There is no reason to believe yet more political rhetoric.
6
Will lead someday be partially blamed for the collapse of the U.S. empire as it was for Rome's?
12
Photo_Caption: "People lined up outside a recreation center in Newark on Tuesday, where officials began giving out bottled water out of concerns about elevated lead levels in tap water..."
Perhaps we could ask the Mexican government to pay for a nationwide U.S. domestic water delivery system upgrade project...as soon as they finish paying for Mr., ('Emperor'?), Trump's Wall!!
3
For anyone familiar with a certain New York disc jockey, Carol Miller is needed “to get the lead out “...
3
But without the brain damage that results from chronic lead poisoning, where will new generations of Republican voters come from?
9
Since the lead poisoning seems to be in democrat run cities not sure how it will affect republicans.
2
huge breweries in newark where do they get water from
6
@domenic2feeney. They do their own cleaning and filtering.
5
Corey Booker had better keep running on racism. It's obvious running things was not his forte.
23
If you could list all that ails us, from Trump to water to McConnell to white nationalism to the environment to the planet to the lack of pitching on your favorite ball team, and update it daily, you would conclude that all the chickens are slowly, and not so slowly coming home to roost and, unless “somebody” (else) does something soon, we’ll find ourselves up to our necks in chicken stuff. The old, old Kingston Trio song...”they’re rioting in Africa, they’re starving in Spain. There’s hurricanes in Florida and Texas needs rain. The whole world is festering with unhappy souls, the French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles. South Africans hate Yugoslavs, Italians hate the Dutch, and I don’t like anybody very much”. I’ve lived a long time and have never seen “it” this angry out there. When you think about what had to happen to cause all the previous overload of angst to be temporarily sidelined, wars foreign and domestic, the options aren’t really any better than the condition in which we find ourselves drowning. Tomorrow’s another day...time for a beer.
4
This is a local city issue. Newark had a water authority that was run into the ground and robbed blind. NYT look into that story.
Now who should pay and be held accountable.
This another case of mismanagement hurting the poor who voted them in.
6
For a long time, oil has been much more important than water because the water was so cheap. Nowadays Nestle and other giants are focusing quite a lot on the water. In most countries, a litre of water costs more than twice of a litre of gasoline.
And the price is going up.
Expect to see more and more lakes and rivers being bought up by companies and more and more people to start paying dollars instead of cents.
A conspiracy theorists might claim that a reason for not taking care of the most important infrastructure of all — water — is simply to make that area of business more available for private investors.
9
Lead in Newark's water pre-dates Cory Booker's time as mayor. But under his watch, the entity charged with providing clean water from the city's watershed to Newark residents, businesses and schools was found riddled with corruption. As mayor, Booker headed the entity, known as the Newark Water Conservation and Development Corp. To date, nine people with ties to the NWCDC, including its executive director and senior projects manager, have been brought up on charges by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark. Eight have pleaded guilty and been sentenced, while one is awaiting trial. As Newarkers today are forced to get their drinking water from bottles, Booker still has many questions to answer. When will he be held accountable?
34
People are asked to drink bottled water on account of lead contamination in tap water but who assures the quality of bottled water ? Infrastructure revamp must be taken up on priority basis throughout the country. That’s a huge problem but neglected till now.
8
This is too bad to have this happen now but we now have another wellfare program. Who is buying all this water. The leaders in their city council the Republicans should pay for it .
They like to pollute things nationwide like bringing coal back to pollute our air and water nationally. Make the GOP pay for the bottled water after all their bills support pollution.
2
Cory Booker was Mayor during this degradation process.
Cory Booker was Mayor while the 100million gift to the schools given by Mark Zuckerberg disappeared.
Why has the question not come up about the 100million to the schools? Where did it all go? Why has Booker not been asked about this during the debates?
39
@Lily
Why is Trump refusing to let us see his illegal bank account. With him running the economy to the ground he may have lied to you all how rich he is and really is a fake with no money.
7
I think we all know the best way to tackle this massive infrastructure problems is with another multi-trillion dollar tax giveaway to billionaires and corporations. Only when the tax coffers are completely empty will we finally be able to deal with these problems. - Or so the GOP would have you believe.
11
Just another example of negligence. How hard is it to spend a couple of million dollars to fix one of the most important things for a city to survive?
14
Investment. Infrastructure. Taxes.
Seems so simple in theory, doesn't it?
58
Who authorized the contract for the defective filters. Come on NYT, do some investigative journalism. You remember what that is, right?
42
No that rarely exists with not only the NYT but also the media companies and organizations that the provide news information to the general public.
6
@Phyllis Sidney the NY Times; "All the News That's Fit to Google"
5
@Phyllis Sidney, MDCooks8, Jim
Apparently you all three skip the copious investigative reporting in the Times. I know, the articles are longer than your favorite president's tweets -- but is that an excuse?
10
Where is Spartacus when he is so needed?
48
@Gustavo
Spartacus has left the building years ago. Actually, he left (figuratively) long before his term was up. He had his eye on a loftier prize than a mayoralty
3
The governor of New Jersey is a Democrat as is the mayor of Newark, so what is surprising about this article?
13
@Mon Ray
Yeah must we gloss over how well places like NC, KS, MO, KY, MS are doing? Just ask anyone dealing with respiratory issues in the poorer parts of NC are doing, thanks to run off from pig farms. And your fine state is doing a fantastic job in public schools....if it were the 1800s.
Let’s call a truce by not blaming one political party for the many woes we find our citizens in, cool, bro?
11
Excuse me, but NJ had a Republican governor for many years while this problem intensified.
6
Water has a "sell-by" date?
8
@Chris Donahue water doesn't but the plastic bottles it is usually do. Plastic starts to degrade over time. That is why long term storage is in cans or glass (the best)
9
@Chris Donahue What exactly is the issue with plastic bottles after the 'sell-by' date?
What is the issue with tap water?
While the bottled water should have been before the expire date, how dangerous is it in comparison to the tap water? Can the bottled water be used for cooking?
Plasticizers and other chemicals like BPA leach from the bottle. Some are carcinogenic and some have unknown impact. Heat speeds up the process.
Repeat exposure to young children or pregnant women could be dangerous.
Not sure why expiration is happening so soon but probably due to storage for emergencies.
1
Expired water sounds kind of ridiculous.
Water does not go bad.
4
It does when it's not bottled in glass.
2
This is IMPOSSIBLE. This is a democrat run state...and we all know democrats care about the poor and minorities. I don't believe this article.
43
Cory Booker was Mayor of Newark from 2006 to 2013.
Obviously, this problem has been festering for some time.
The question is: what did Booker know, and when did he know it?
And if he was ignorant of the problem, was that a good thing?
33
Where on Earth is Corey Booker? Why is he not
on top of this. And as a former mayor where its ground zero why is he absent. Is this how his presidency would be run: all talk and no action.
22
Thousands of plastic bottles of water.
One disaster compounded with another.
186
@Will.
Good point. I’ve read that some cities ( states?) are moving to ban the little shampoo bottles banned in motels. When will plastic water bottles be as well? Beside the obvious environmental impact, the bottles leach bad chemicals in the water contained in them - yet another lose- lose for the citizens of Newark.
4
Wasn’t Cory Booker Mayor of Newark when this water crisis began, or was already underway?
Wasn’t Cory Booker the Mayor of Newark when Mark Zuckerberg gave the school system 100 million dollars that are now mostly unaccounted for ?
52
Yes Corey was the man in charge.
7
Has Cowry Booker provided his tax returns for the past ten years? But missing money from a school fund donation would not be listed as income....
3
The Virginia Engineer who stated that lead is a great plumbing material—other than poisoning and killing people—knows how dangerous lead is. Sadly many politicians only care about the “great plumbing material” aspect and do not care that they are cognitively and physically destroying the people who live there...because it costs money to prevent the wholesale destruction of those using lead pipes.
Many other cities have lead pipes and are blinding themselves and their citizens to this horrendous problem. Infrastructure replacement is a great economy stimulator, but more importantly is essential to our health.
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You would not believe how many people - retirement age - are finding their way to my corner of Georgia coming out of New Jersey. Often they say the reason for their exodus is due to the crumbling infrastructure, high taxes and corrupt politicians. Well, we have very little infrastructure to crumble, taxes are pretty low...but, politicians? We’ll stack our corrupt politicians against anybody’s! Two outta three ain’t bad....
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@Aycock
I would never consider such a move. If I am ever able to retire, which is unlikely given how the previous generation has bankrupted pensions and social security, I would never move south. South Jersey, sure. But that's as far south as I go thank you very much.
1
Deregulation and gutting EPA funding might help get this out of the news.
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Where is Cory Booker on this; he represents this state and city.
Less time worrying about criminals in jail and more time worrying about tax payers and law abiding citizens in trouble through no fault of their own.
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Can’t wait for Booker’s explanation.
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Hello - the plastic bottles in the headline photo are destroying the oceans and use lots of fossil fuels to produce - find a better way to distribute water.
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Hope Corey Booker can help his hometown out a little now that he has used it as a stepping stone to the Senate. Too bad some of that 200 million Mark Zuckerberg gave to Booker to improve education in Newark couldn't have been spent getting the lead out of the water in the schools.
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I just have one question: If lead is as toxic as they say it is, and especially to developing brains, how come we don't have a bunch of mentally-impaired children and adults running around? Oh wait. . .
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Change the pipes. It's a joke passing out bottles of water.
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Water has a sell-by date that means something?!?!?!? Reason number one thousand to never ever buy that stuff.
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The US has been fortunate to have potable water. It would be criminal to lose it.
Here in Mexico, as in much of the world, we rely on bottled water, which fortunately is cheap — about $1.75 USD for a five-gallon garafon.
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It is no accident that such crises affect towns like Flint and Newark, where the residents are minorities with low incomes. Yet another example of how we as a nation value black lives.
No levels of lead are safe for brain development, and its effects are irreversible. The impact on communities lasts for generations.
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@Paul
The piping in both Flint and Newark were installed many years before the populations were "minorities with low incomes", many years...... The problem is with the politicians......
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Replacing all of the lead pipes Newark, as well as other cities and towns in New Jersey, is only one of many vital repairs needed to our failing infrastructure.
We could begin to fix everything in our state that if we simply legalized marijuana.
Colorado has greatly benefited from the windfall their own legalization has brought to that state.
It’s time.
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@Andrea As a resident of Colorado, living in a rural area where the growing of legal marijuana has dramatically changed the landscape, I would say that the benefits are NOT much of a windfall and that the costs, thus far, greatly outweigh the benefits.
Housing costs have skyrocketed, as has the homeless population. Dependency and neglect filings and the foster care population are rising.
Also, small numbers of people are becoming fantastically wealthy and are gaining the power, through wealth, of taking over school boards, planning commissions, county and municipal governments.
The tax revenue has largely accrued to the benefit of a few large metropolitan areas, mostly along the front range. The cost has fallen on economically challenged communities already reeling from job losses from agricultural automation and the the collapse of timber, mining, and manufacturing operations.
On balance, the state's budget looks healthier, but on the ground, the benefits have accrued to the few while the costs have been passed on to the many.
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As many have said, this is systemic and it should be a national emergency as it causes brain damage, among other problems. Yes folks, brain damage. In children.
Booker knew this as Mayor and as a Mayor of a city, any city, it has to start there. As a Senator, that is where the money is and, as a national emergency, a Senator surely can focus on a problem such as this - that is what federal tax dollars are for; to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. DeBlasio, are you listening as well?
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New York City’s infrastructure is fine calm down.
@Anonymous
As someone else posted, back pre-1960's most everyone was exposed to lead levels well above the limits established in the present day. To the best of my knowledge, masses of 'brain damaged' older adults due to lead ingestion are not living all over America. Please check the hyperbole and hysteria.
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@Common Sense
“Lead exposure can have serious consequences for the health of children. At high levels of exposure, lead attacks the brain and central nervous system to cause coma, convulsions and even death. Children who survive severe lead poisoning may be left with mental retardation and behavioural disorders.”
The World Health Organization
And it is worse in poor communities where infrastructure updates are ignored. Not hyperbole.
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What a mess.
I've thought of this many a time when I've walked through homes for purchase. Those old copper pipes are great...but as mentioned they used to use lead infused solder to join them.
The modern workaround are PEX based products. But I wonder if those too will result in problems concerning carcinogens down the line.
The best solution?
New copper pipes with tin solder. But that is of course big money.
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@Jack
And what about lead used to seal canned goods?
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@Mark Shyres
Cans are coated inside.
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@Mark Shyres
False alarm; you are decades late. "Early tin cans were sealed by soldering with a tin-lead alloy, which could lead to lead poisoning." -- Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_and_tin_cans
and other sources.
1
Corey Booker did not cause this problem and, as a US senator, he alone cannot fix it. The problem is that the infrastructure in this country is crumbling and the federal and state governments are doing too little to fix it.
Does Donald Trump truly want to be a hero? Then he should push legislation that fixes this country's growing number of infrastructure issues.
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That would not make Trump a hero.
It would only show him doing something that’s part of the job.
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@Seth Too bad, with all the money going to the tax cuts, we can't afford to fix our crumbling infrastructure.
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@Seth Maybe Trump could declare an infrastructure week or something.
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The City of San Diego had lead service in old neighborhoods in the 1970's. Water plants adjust the Ph of water so it is scale forming.
Things got better when the Clean Drinking Water Act was passed and the Lead and Copper Rule.
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There’s too much lead in other drinking water supplies but water companies (municipal and investor owned) do not test as much as they should or reveal their results to the public (with some exceptions)
If you’re worried about lead, then get a home test kit. Better yet, make it a science project for high schoolers.
Know what’s in your water!
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@David Zetland....a good idea for sure, but actually many municipalities do test for all sorts of toxins. I know I get a quarterly report from my local govt with exactly what is in the water and how many parts per million. so they are testing.
perhaps in some parts of the country that is not done, but I would be very surprised as it would seemingly be a very basic part of the Clean Water Act.
private wells are another matter entirely.
5
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Every major city in the U.S. is suffering from some infrastructure malady. Here in Atlanta we pay a heavy surcharge on our water bills from years of neglecting our wastewater treatment.
Granted lead pipes are more serious, but we only drink filtered or bottled water now. Then there's the horrendous traffic, roadways and bridges falling apart. The list goes on and on.
And this isn't a Cory Booker problem, this is a United States of America problem. Infrastructure should have been a top priority for this Congress, and they have yet to move on it.
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I left Atlanta 12 years ago for a Central Georgia farm....somebody told me they are still working on I75....
7
@cherrylog754 Booker is solving everybody else's problem .why not solve his home problem?
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The local city governments are responsible for their own infrastructures and for decades basic maintenance was limited for decades or not performed in years due to poor budget planning, which is why these cities seek hundreds of millions of dollars and / or billions from the federal government now to pay for what should have been budgeted and take care of on a regular and consistent basis years ago.
When they had an opportunity to pay for maintenance over decades, now these cities have to pay a significant amount more to replace.
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This does not bode well for Booker. He should suspend his campaign and take care of this immediately.
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@Location01 he's no longer mayor of Newark. Yes, as a senator, he can help, but really, this is a local issue. Asking him to step down is just a clear attempt to get him out of the campaign.
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You believe that politicians should stop seeking office because a problem exists?
This is a Newark problem, not a federal problem, so what could a Federal Senator do to immediately rectify the situation besides tell Newark city officials to do their jobs better and to ask a federal prosecutor to force Newark to comply with existing lead in water laws?
Sounds like you simply do not want Cory Booker to run, and it has nothing to do with lead in water.
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@Mnb20 I’m sorry he represents the state of NJ and they’re having a hard time with drinking water he needs to come back here with the mayor and sort this out. Drinking water is non negotiable. It can be temporary suspension but this is unacceptable for all NJ politicians both local and as a state rep. He works for the people.
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