Troy Has the Worst Lead in Water Problem in NYS

August 18, 2024

In advance of Thursday’s Public Utilities meeting, we reviewed the latest available Annual Water Quality Reports for every city in New York State. It confirmed what we saw last year: the City of Troy has — by far — the worst lead in drinking water problem in the entire state.

The EPA’s action level is 15 parts per billion (or ppb) at the 90th percentile. At the 90th percentile, Troy’s drinking water is at 35.4 ppb.

To further contextualize 35.4 ppb: at the height of the Flint water crisis, the city’s official AWQR showed 11 parts per billion at the 90th percentile while the comparatively dire community survey efforts led by Virginia Tech returned a 90th percentile concentration of 25 parts per billion, which we still exceed by double digits.

This is a public health crisis that will not be solved with wishful thinking or fake numbers. This administration has said a lot about risk in the context of bonding — as if it is not also risky to condemn children to drinking the most lead-contaminated water in the state. This is a totally alien conceptualization of acceptable caution to us.

We expect to see tangible progress at the upcoming Public Utilities meeting. When we say tangible progress, we mean tangible administrative progress. We're talking about hiring plans, financing, appropriations, paperwork, and legislation - not grinding current staff down with extra work.