Residents of a New York City public housing complex have been told not to drink or cook with water from their taps after testing revealed unsafe levels of arsenic, Mayor Eric Adams’ office said.
Adams stopped by the Jacob Riis Houses in the East Village on Friday night to meet with tenants about the situation. The complex, run by the New York City Housing Authority, is home to more than 2,500 people.
“NYCHA immediately initiated water testing in August after receiving reports of cloudy water at Riis Houses,” a spokesperson for the mayor’s office said Saturday in an email.
“Preliminary results received yesterday from retesting showed arsenic levels higher than the federal standard for drinking water, and while there is no evidence linking it to the cloudy water, the city has taken immediate action, including providing support and drinking water to every household at Riis,” the spokesperson said.
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine said on Twitter that no arsenic contamination has been found in the surrounding neighborhood, and that the city’s overall water supply “remains extremely safe to drink.”
Arsenic is a chemical element that occurs in the earth’s mineral deposits and dissolves in groundwater. Consumption of arsenic in water can cause cancer and other illnesses, according to public health experts. The Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organization agree on a maximum level of 10 parts per billion of arsenic in drinking water.
New York City’s public housing units — which house some 400,000 people across all five boroughs — have for years been plagued by mold, lead paint, vermin and heat outages. In 2018, the federal government sued NYCHA alleging the 80-year-old authority violated basic federal heath and safety regulations, including protecting children from toxic lead paint.
The reports of the unsafe drinking water at the Riis houses came the same day that New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams released a new report, “How the Other Half Lives in Public Housing,” taking aim at NYCHA for “deplorable” conditions. The report’s title pays homage to Jacob Riis, the journalist and reformer whose book “How the Other Half Lives” documented the squalid living conditions of city slums in the 1880s.
“NYCHA has long been the city’s worst landlord,” Williams said of the arsenic detection. “No one can truly be surprised by these revelations anymore
A NYCHA spokesperson didn’t comment directly on the situation at the Riis houses and referred Bloomberg to the mayor’s office.
Top NYCHA managers first learned of test results showing traces of arsenic about two weeks ago, the nonprofit news organization The City reported.
