Syracuse’s lead pipes: Where to get a free water filter and who’s eligible

Syracuse, NY — City and county officials are offering free water filters to 6,000 households following concerns about contaminated water from lead pipes.
To qualify, the household must reside in the city of Syracuse and include a pregnant woman, other at-risk individual or be in a home where children aged six or younger are routinely present, officials said.
The filter will be a Brita Elite-branded NSF-certified water filter and pitcher capable of removing lead.
Distribution will be at the following locations and times:
Women, Infants and Children (WIC), at 307 Gifford St.:
Salvation Army Christmas Bureau Registration Days
More filters will be distributed at a later date to eligible households with children in pre-K through first grade in the city school district, as well as to daycares, charter schools and other caregivers, city and county officials said.
Confusion and concern has spread after tests this summer reported high levels of lead in more than two dozen city homes. Those were the city’s first tests showing high lead levels in two decades.
More recent tests have shown levels that fall below federal guidelines for alarm. City officials have since blamed this summer’s high readings on errors by water department employees tasked with collecting the samples.
But those high summer tests triggered alarm by the National Resources Defense Council, which led to nationwide media coverage of Syracuse’s lead pipes.
Experts say that lead pipes amount to ticking time bombs, but that cities across the country suffer from the same plight as Syracuse.
The city has long added a chemical to its water to slow the leeching of lead into the water supply. None of the city’s water mains or supply lines contain lead; the culprits are the pipes that run from the street into each individual home, as well as the plumbing inside private residences, officials say.
None of the city’s practices had changed prior to the summer’s sampling, suggesting that the tests themselves were the anomaly, officials added.
Besides using a filter, another effective way to remove significant amounts of lead from water is to run a tap for at least one minute each morning before using the water for cooking or drinking, said Onondaga County health commissioner Dr. Kathryn Anderson.
In fact, the reason city officials say this summer’s tests were faulty is because workers allegedly took water that had been sitting for long periods in garden hoses instead of fresh water from a tap.
Staff writer Douglass Dowty can be reached at [email protected] or 470-6070.