Newark Mayor Ras Baraka informed the Newark City Council this morning that a vendor replacing lead pipes might have left some lead in the pipe.
Baraka made the revelation during a closed-door executive session, but microphones were inadvertently left on for a while, and the public was able to hear his disclosure.
He said the Department of Environmental Protection conducted an audit “based on some information that we got about a third party, one of our third-party vendors.”
“That’s about as much as I can say. This is still operable, and I’ve been in depositions where executive sessions have been raised, so I have to be careful, based on instructions from our lawyers, to speak carefully about what I’m about to say,” Baraka stated.
Baraka told the council that “a third party who was doing work for the city — we had got information that they may not have completed all of what they were supposed to complete in terms of lead service lines — that they might have left a little lead (in the) fixtures, a pipe in with the copper.”
“They may have changed from the house all the way to the curb. And you get to the main. They may have left some lead there. We checked with the DEP; this is one vendor; we found that three out of four of the houses that they said — three of them, actually — did not do exactly what they said they did. They didn’t. They left some lead in it. And the fourth house, it was good.”
Baraka told the council the “city is still figuring it out, but we’re doing a complete audit as we go forward. “
“We’re doing a complete we actually started a complete audit already, meaning that we’re going to be calling people’s houses,” he explained. “We’re sending out a letter this week, which is why I’m telling you this because once we send a letter out, everybody will know.”
At that point, Baraka became aware that he was not in a private meeting.
Kareem Adeem, the director of the Newark Department of Water and Sewer Utilities, said in a statement posted later on the city’s website said that “some remaining lead components were found on the street side, between the curb and water main.”
“These remaining lead components were immediately replaced, Adeem said. “Newark and NJDEP will continue this audit over the next several weeks … if and where any remaining lead components are identified, they will be immediately replaced.”
Shawn LaTourette, the New Jersey Commissioner of Environmental Protection, told the New Jersey Globe that his department is conducting a compliance and enforcement investigation that includes an audit of the lead service line replacement. He noted that partial replacements are not permitted under a state law sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz (D-Newark) and Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic).
“No one should panic here,” LaTourette said.