Timeline: The Lead Contamination Crisis Unfolding in Syracuse 

The quality of the water we drink should not depend on our skin color, zip code, or wealth. But in Syracuse, over 25 percent of households have extremely high levels of lead in their water, and in Onondaga county, Black children are almost six times as likely as white children to have elevated levels of lead in their blood.

Lead is a potent neurotoxin with no safe level of exposure, and children and developing brains are most at risk of permanent damage.

The safety of Syracuse’s drinking water is an urgent matter, yet city officials have failed to address the crisis. Instead, they blamed workers who conducted the initial testing for the alarming findings, and offered the results of subsequent, flawed testing as proof that no problem exists.

Syracuse families impacted by lead poisoning disagree, and together with our partner organizations we are calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to declare a state of emergency and demand that Syracuse take steps to prevent residents, particularly children and pregnant people, from ingesting any more toxic lead.

Syracuse has one of the worst lead poisoning crises in the country, with an outsized impact on Black residents.

Lead is harmful to humans. In children, it can lead to developmental delays, hearing loss, behavioral issues, and, in severe cases, seizures or comas. In adults, long-term exposure can cause heart disease and cancer.