New Jersey Residents, Officials Reach Settlement In Years-Long Lead Contamination Litigation
After years of litigation, representatives for the State of New Jersey and for residents of Newark have agreed on terms to remediate lead contamination of the city’s drinking water.
“Officials from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) reached an agreement with the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Newark Education Workers Caucus, which sued city and state officials in June 2018 for ongoing violations of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, including their failure to address the lead crisis on a timely basis,” CNN reported.
The City of Newark was sued over dangerously high levels of lead found in tap water in 2018, with some homes testing as high as 12-times the federal danger level. In 2019, the U.S. EPA sent a letter to Newark officials warning them about the issue and prompting state and federal commitments to fix the problem.
Shortly after, Newark announced plans to replace thousands of its lead water pipes. But this latest settlement will require the City to make an additional effort to identity and replace all lead-containing drinking water service lines.
“Officials say they have replaced 17,000 lead service lines so far as part of the $120-million plan, and will have completed the project on time,” per Gizmodo. “But ‘there could be more,’ lines out there, Margie Kelly, strategic communications manager for Natural Resources Defense Council, said in an email.”
The new agreement will also require officials to give free drinking water testing kits and point-source filters to residents; to hold in-person and remote forums to educate residents on how to manage the filters; and to maintain a website that will inform residents on their eligibility for drinking water line replacement, filters, and water-testing results.
“The lawsuit against NJDEP and the city of Newark has been dismissed as part of the settlement, the advocacy groups cannot bring further actions related to the past city water situation,” according to CNN. “The parties did not seek monetary damages in the suit.”
While Newark still faces a steep road in having its drinking water infrastructure fully replaced, completion of the project should solve the lead contamination problem at its root.
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