CDM Smith, the consultant hired by Newark to study how the city was treating its water, submitted its draft report in October but shared its initial findings with three officials as early as February, records show.
In repeated statements this year, Newark officials assured residents the lead issue only affected a limited number of homes.
It wasn’t until October that Newark acknowledged problems with corrosion control at its Pequannock plant and announced it was distributing 40,000 water filters to residents.
"In October, we found it was a widespread problem,” Mayor Ras Baraka previously told reporters.
“Once we got a full report that this was not an anomaly, that this wasn’t, 12, 14, 20 homes that are affected by this … we began to go right into what we thought we should do the minute we found out it was a widespread problem.” City spokeswoman Crystal Rosa deferred to a statement on the February email from CDM Smith on Tuesday and did not provide additional comments from city officials.
Smith added that when the study was complete, Newark “responded with immediate action, distributing water filters to residents within two weeks of receiving the draft report.” The city’s response to the lead issue has not violated any federal standards.
But the NRDC filed an emergency motion on Saturday, asking a judge to order Newark to distribute filters to all residents, including those in the East Ward, not just those with lead service lines or lead fixtures.
City officials have repeatedly denied that Newark’s East Ward is affected by the drinking water crisis stemming from lead contamination, but the data shows that’s not true.
Learn more: https://t.co/h2wgEgdUjN — NRDC 🌎 (@NRDC) December 10, 2018 The NRDC said the city has known since at least 2016 that water from the Pequannock and Wanaque systems were blending, meaning that the inadequately treated water from Pequannock could be affecting residents in the East Ward.
The new corrosion treatment is expected to take 6 to 8 months to take effect.