New York's Effort to Protect Its Children from Exposure to Lead In

2017 URMIA Journal Reprint Lead by Example: New York’s Effort to Protect Its Children from Exposure to Lead in Drinking Water in the Post-Flint Era Howard N. Apsan, Ph.D. The City University of New York URMIA University Risk Management and Insurance Association Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you. —JOHN MUIR, SCOttISH-AMERICAN NATURALIST, AUTHOR, AND WILDERNESS ADVOCATE Lead by Example: New York’s Effort to Protect Its Children from Exposure to Lead in Drinking Water in the Post-Flint Era Howard N. Apsan, Ph.D., The City University of New York Introduction Fascinating as the story of New York City’s water The entrance to the Van Cortland Park Valve Chamber system may be, this article is about a small segment of that was through a non-descript metal door set in stone block story: protecting New York’s children from elevated expo- and built into a grass-covered rise in the North Bronx. sure to lead from drinking water. To be fair, exposure to We entered, signed our waivers, and donned our green lead in drinking water is significant, but only one of many New York City Department of Envi- municipal water quality challenges. Still, ronmental Protection (DEP) hard hats. the lessons learned from water systems in Then we proceeded through a damp Flint, Michigan, and elsewhere over the tunnel to a construction elevator that de- The lessons learned past several years have illustrated how a scended 25 floors beneath the city streets from water systems relatively small amount of lead in the wa- to a valve chamber the size of several ter—15 parts per billion, to be precise— football fields. When we stepped out of in Flint, Michigan, can influence public policy. the elevator, we had the sense of walking Regardless of the reader’s familiarity into some futuristic science fiction scene and elsewhere over with New York City’s water system or or onto the set of an old James Bond the past several years the recent events leading to elevated lead movie. After several beats, our guide levels in Flint’s drinking water, this article brought us back to the present, remind- have illustrated how will provide background on the sources ing us that this valve chamber controls of elevated blood lead levels in chil- hundreds of millions of gallons of New a relatively small dren—especially from lead in drinking York City drinking water, some of which amount of lead water—and its health effects. It will then was flowing through the cement-lined, touch on some of the issues that Flint 24-foot diameter Third Water Tunnel in the water—15 had to address and explore the practices cut through bedrock hundreds of feet that New York follows to help minimize below where we stood. parts per billion, those risks. In particular, it will include Futuristic or not, this valve cham- to be precise—can changes that New York adopted in ber is part of the latest phase of a water sampling protocols to minimize potential system that was started, ironically, as influence public exposure to children in its public schools. part of a joint venture between Alexan- Finally, because this is written with der Hamilton and Aaron Burr in 1799.1 policy. university risk managers in mind, it will That venture, which turned out to be a touch on the risk implications for col- bit of legislative sleight of hand on Burr’s leges, universities, and other institutions part, never met its purported goal of where young children may be exposed to transporting water from the Bronx River to lower Man- lead in drinking water on a regular, occasional, or sea- hattan. Nevertheless, four-and-a-half decades and one sonal basis. These institutions may have childcare centers, very famous duel later, New Yorkers were drinking fresh specialized public schools, summer camps, after school water from the Croton watershed in Westchester Coun- programs, and other activities that host these vulnerable ty. Today, New York City consumes more than a billion populations. Hopefully, this will contribute to the reduc- gallons of water a day, much of which flows courtesy of tion of lead in drinking water in these settings and enhance gravity from mountain reservoirs more than a hundred our ability to protect children from lead exposure. miles to the north and west.2 URMIA Journal 2017 63 Lead and Public Health In the case of Flint, the water supply was corrosive and as Sources of Exposure a result the lead leaching was exacerbated. Lead is a naturally occurring heavy metal that has been in use for thousands of years. Because it melts at a relatively Health Effects of Lead Exposure on Children low temperature and is soft and malleable, it has many As noted, lead is a neurotoxin and, therefore, its primary commercial and industrial uses. On the other hand, it effect is on the nervous system. Sustained exposure can is a known neurotoxin that bioaccumulates and causes result in additional health effects, including brain and damage to the brain and nervous system. It is especially kidney damage and ultimately death. For children, the harmful to young children. To protect children from impact of lead on the still-forming brain and nervous the threat of exposure, the potential for elevated blood system can result in developmental issues that will affect lead levels, and the resulting health and developmental the child for life. And while removing the source of expo- impacts, three common sources of exposure were banned sure is always salutary, some impacts cannot be reversed. in the United States: leaded gasoline, house paint, and This is especially true for children whose bodies cannot plumbing fixtures.3 reduce enough of the lead through the body’s elimination By the late 1970s, with the initiation of the Environ- processes to prevent permanent bioaccumulation in bone mental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ultimate ban of leaded and tissue.10 gasoline—one of the great American environmental The silver lining in this story is that lead blood levels success stories—exposure to lead in the air, or in the soil in children have declined as a result of the aforemen- near heavily trafficked roads where lead particles were tioned bans on leaded gasoline, lead-based paint, and lead deposited, was significantly reduced.4 In 1978, lead-based plumbing fixtures. But again, the events in Flint remind paint, another source of lead exposure, was banned, and us that the story is far from over. subsequent regulations were promulgated to protect children—especially in older, poorly maintained build- Lead in the Flint, Michigan, Water System ings—from ingesting lead-based paint chips.5 The 1986 Historians suggest that the citizens of ancient Rome may requirement for “lead free” piping in public water systems have had elevated blood lead levels because of the lead and household plumbing installations, followed in 1991 water pipes that were a symbol of Imperial engineering by EPA’s Lead and Copper in Drinking Water Rule, prowess.11 Some even attribute the decline of the Roman provided further protection from lead ingestion through Empire in part to lead poisoning.12 Unfortunately, Flint potable water.6 These requirements, however, do not has become a contemporary synecdoche. In spite of our obligate the removal of existing plumbing, and, therefore, scientific and regulatory advances, the Flint water crisis many existing lead pipes and fixtures remain. demonstrated that even in the 21st century, room for Lead in drinking water can come from lead in the progress in this arena remains. surface water or groundwater source. It can leach from Like so many aging, economically stressed Rust-belt the water provider’s lead supply pipes, joints, pumps, or cities, Flint was under extraordinary pressure to cut costs. fixtures. And it can leach from a building’s plumbing sys- Among the “luxuries” that Flint provided to its citizens tem—lead pipes, joints, solder, and fixtures. Lead cannot was Detroit Water and Sewerage Authority water, which be detected in drinking water without sampling because it was sourced from Lake Huron and the Detroit River. As has no identifying taste, color, or smell.7 All drinking wa- one of many cost cutting initiatives, Flint decided that it ter suppliers must sample for lead under the Safe Drink- could no longer afford to pay for Detroit water and would ing Water Act,8 and there are state and local sampling instead rely on Flint River water, beginning in April 2014. requirements for lead in drinking water at schools and As everyone now knows, it appears to have been a penny childcare facilities. EPA provides guidelines for flushing wise and pound foolish decision. The Flint River water and other measures to minimize potential exposure, but was more corrosive and was not adequately treated. This of course reducing the hazard at the source is preferable.9 caused lead to leach from the city’s many lead service lines and soldered joints. It exposed thousands of Flint 64 URMIA Journal 2017 residents, many of them children, to elevated lead levels. original upstate supply, in Putnam, Westchester, and The immediate threat has dissipated, but the events in Dutchess counties; and a groundwater supply in south- Flint will have public policy ramifications throughout the eastern Queens. In 2016, New York City received a United States for years to come.13 blend of drinking water from the Catskill/Delaware and Croton supplies. The Catskill/Delaware supply provided New York Water approximately 91 percent of the water, and approxi- New Yorkers (including this author) have been known to mately nine percent was supplied by Croton.

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