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As city officials, advocates and third-party sampling groups work to address the ongoing lead water crisis in Syracuse, Daron Medley, a local elementary schooler diagnosed with lead poisoning in 2018, has repeated the same question to anyone who will listen:

“My brother and I have already been lead poisoned,” Medley said. “Why do you want to poison us again?”

In a special committee meeting Tuesday, Robert Brandt, Syracuse’s commissioner of water, presented updated lead water data and proposals to expedite the pipe replacement process to the city’s Common Council.

Brandt said the city is aware of at least 14,000 private lead service lines, though that number could be as high as 30,000. The Public Works committee discussed short-term plans, including refabbing 2,700 homes in the coming year, while acknowledging the need to test homes with unknown statuses.

Between 2005 and 2007, Syracuse replaced the public side of the city’s water lines, covering every pipe from the main to the curb stop where the line is then considered “private,” Brandt said. Under the United States Environmental Protection Agency guidelines, all lead pipes — private or public — must be replaced by 2034.

Brandt refuted many of the claims made by Elin Betanzo in an analysis of the city’s lead water data last week, including allegations that the city’s efforts caused delays in pipe replacement. Brandt said the city is ahead of EPA standards but acknowledged that mismanaged sampling efforts last year contributed to a lack of trust throughout the community.

“I’m trying to fix this problem,” Brandt said. “I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make sure the testing is legit. Last time, I went to probably 60 homes myself and went door to door to all the homes that exceeded (lead) levels.”

Amid widespread distrust caused by the city collector’s performance in 2024, officials are looking elsewhere to procure samples. To “earn back the trust” of the public, Brandt said the city needs to involve a non-governmental water testing group.

He told councilors he had been approached by 120Water, a third-party water sampling company, after reaching out to various potential partners. As he presented the company on Tuesday morning, several committee members voiced concerns about relying on a single private group.

Third District Councilor Corey Williams said the committee wouldn’t regain the trust of city residents by “waiving the competitive bid” for the partnership and encouraged Brandt to seek out additional potential partners.

“You can’t hand select,” Chol Majok, a councilor at-large and 2025 mayoral candidate, said. “If the community can’t trust you already, why would they trust you with hand-picking a (sampling group)?”

Despite concerns, councilors unanimously approved the deal with 120Water during Tuesday afternoon’s general council meeting.

Even with the new partnership, Brandt acknowledged that the company requires city residents to collect water samples themselves. This raised further concerns among councilors about the potential for inaccurate testing.

Clean water advocate Darlene Medley said the city’s decision to exclude groups such as Families for Lead Freedom Now from decision-making and sampling efforts only deepens the distrust within the community.

Medley, the west branch leader of FLFN and Daron’s mother, brought her twin sons to the meeting, both of whom have experienced lead poisoning. She criticized city officials for continually delaying the replacement process, claiming Brandt “doesn’t care” about resolving the crisis. She also called the deputy commissioner’s responses to councilor’s concerns “inadequate.”

“You’re not listening to us. Families for Lead Freedom now has been around (longer than) anyone sitting at that table,” Medley said. “We know lead better than anybody in this room, people are not going to open the doors for you.”

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Sol Muñoz, Mayor Ben Walsh’s infrastructure public information officer, said the city has publicly acknowledged the shortcomings of testing conducted in 2024 and has “properly disciplined” employees who used hoses to collect samples from outdoor spigots at some testing sites.

“The whole point of the sampling is actually to kind of mimic how a person would go to their sink and fill up a glass of water,” Muñoz said.

Sympathizing with the advocates’ concerns, Muñoz said the city has never “purposefully tried to tamper data or lied.”

After being made aware of poor testing procedures, the city issued statements to the public and hosted town halls to engage with and inform advocacy groups of the errors.

Muñoz acknowledged the concerns, assuring that the city is taking steps to prevent similar issues moving forward.

“I understand entirely where these advocates are coming from, where these residents are coming from,” Muñoz said. “Anytime you hear the word lead, that’s a scary thought.”

Brandt, who was appointed to his position in February 2024, said he has lived in homes with lead pipes his entire life and understands the suffering caused by lead contamination.

Under federal policy, lead testing must be conducted in Tier-1, or single family, homes. Betanzo’s report claimed the city tested some homes at random to “dilute” the results.

In a city where 60% of residents are tenants living in multi-residential homes, Williams said the city should be maximizing its testing efforts across all buildings, rather than simply meeting state and federal standards.

“I’m having a hard time figuring out why we’re doing the minimum of testing,” Williams said. “If that’s our minimum requirement, we’re going to get it done right. But why aren’t we going above and beyond?”

Brandt said the city attempted to test homes outside the EPA’s restrictions — homes without confirmed lead pipes but deemed likely to be contaminated based on their time of construction and location. When submitting the results from 400 homes, he said New York state’s Department of Health returned the list and told him to remove any addresses with unknown lead status, reducing the total to 170.

Despite the restrictions, Brandt said the city is ahead of schedule in following the EPA’s 10-year plan to remove all lead pipes from city residences. With support from groups such as 120Water and funding from both the state and city, Brandt said Syracuse has been able to expedite testing and pipe replacement efforts.

Brandt also noted the city has distributed 6,200 water filters throughout the community and “has not turned away” anyone who has requested one. FLFN Co-Chair Oceana Fair previously claimed Onondaga County has yet to release the funds allocated in 2022 to distribute filters.

While city officials debated new sampling strategies, Brandt said they are already falling behind on 2025 sampling. Testing, which was scheduled to begin in February, has been delayed as the city negotiated a request for proposals. The proposals resulted in the partnership with 120Water just this week.

To accelerate the process, 5th District Councilor Jimmy Monto said advocates and volunteers from city groups should go door-to-door in affected neighborhoods and explain the importance of proper water collection. Medley, Fair and others have called for similar community engagement.

Brandt said local nonprofits “wouldn’t know if someone had lead service lines,” even though groups such as FLFN have accessed city data with a FOIL request through the National Resource Defense Council, which produced Betanzo’s report.

Medley said people in need of sampling are likely to turn city officials away when approached for sampling because of distrust and fear of legal retaliation from landlords. She said affected populations will only respond to people they recognize and trust as advocates for them.

When engaging with potential victims of lead poisoning, Medley emphasized that she always reminds people the testing is for their safety and not something that will result in punishment or eviction.

Brandt didn’t share any plans for nonprofits to help in city testing efforts. Medley said the city hasn’t seriously considered advocates as contributors to sample collection efforts during the testing process.

First District Councilor Marty Nave didn’t call for a state of emergency as advocates from NRCD and FLFN have, but still described the crisis as “a real health issue” that requires swift action from the city government. Nave said city standards should be raised and widespread testing should become mandatory.

“(The city) should have the right to say to the landlords, ‘We are doing this for a reason,’” Nave said. “… Dealing with human beings and families in our lives, this is mandatory, and we have to come from this perspective because this is a serious problem.”

Brandt said since all remaining pipe replacements are privately owned, city officials cannot force families to test their water. Muñoz said city and county officials will continue to educate and inform constituents in contaminated homes.

“We rely heavily on the Onondaga Health Department to help educate residents about what they should be doing, like running the water before they go to drink it in the morning, or things of that nature,” Muñoz said. “We are not health experts and don’t pretend to be, so we want to make sure that that information is coming straight from the health department commissioner.”

Published on February 20, 2025 at 1:30 am

Contact Duncan: digreen@syr.edu