New Expert Report Confirms Scale of Syracuse Lead Water Crisis   

SYRACUSE – Today, Syracuse residents impacted by lead poisoning and advocates announced the release of a new expert analysis of the city’s own data. The analysis reveals a more pervasive lead-in-drinking-water crisis than city officials have claimed in the six months since their high lead monitoring results spurred headlines about the drinking water crisis. The report calls into question the city’s claims that Syracuse is in compliance with state and federal drinking water requirements, revealing multiple, ongoing failures to follow applicable law. The analysis also indicates that the more than 14,000 Syracuse homes receiving drinking water from lead service lines are at high risk for harm from lead-tainted water. 

“This is a well-researched and expert review of the city of Syracuse’s own water utility data,” said Oceanna Fair, south branch leader of Families for Lead Freedom. “We were digging into the data and regulations and scratching our heads over the city’s story. The story is now clear. There is a lead crisis in Syracuse and the city is not taking it seriously. We know that lead service lines affect over 14,000 Syracuse households and we need better answers. And it is happening on Mayor Ben Walsh’s watch. The mayor has a choice. He can work alongside the community, meet the community’s demands, and leave a legacy of a brighter future with clean water. Or he can cement his legacy as one that left our city with toxic, dangerous water.” 

The report, commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council, was prepared by Safe Water Engineering, nationally recognized for drinking water technical expertise and instrumental in uncovering the Flint drinking water crisis. It shows that the city’s recent tests were skewed, targeting homes without confirmed lead services lines, under-representing the degree of contamination across the city. Lead is a potent neurotoxin with no safe level of exposure, and children and developing brains are most at risk of permanent damage. The city has known since at least the summer of 2024, when city officials announced water test results with more than double levels of lead found during the Flint water crisis.  

“Addressing our city’s drinking water crisis is both a public health and a racial justice imperative,” said Lanessa Owens-Chaplin, director of the New York Civil Liberties Union’s Racial Justice Center. “Syracuse has one of the worst lead poisoning crises in the country, with an outsized impact on Black residents. Our leaders must acknowledge the magnitude of the crisis and take urgent action to ensure all Syracuse residents have access to clean and safe drinking water. Mayor Walsh must face the facts and declare a state of emergency.”       

In 2021, more than 11.6% of Black children in Onondaga County were found to have elevated lead levels compared to 2% of white children. Impacted residents and advocates have urged Mayor Walsh to provide appropriate certified lead reducing water filters, declare a state of emergency, and engage the community in creating a plan to remove lead-hazards, prioritizing the most lead-burdened communities.   

The report follows Mayor Walsh’s State of the City on January 16, where he declared that Syracuse is “in full compliance with EPA requirements.” 

You can read the report here: https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/2025-02/swe-final-syracuse-analysis-technical-memo-jan21.pdf  

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