1 in 5 New Yorkers may be drinking water from lead pipes, new report says

Lead pipes may carry water to as many as 900,000 New York City homes, more than 60 years after such pipes were banned across the five boroughs, according to a new report by the New York City Coalition to End Lead Poisoning.

By analyzing publicly available data from the city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the report found that nearly half of all buildings in Brooklyn and Manhattan are served by pipes that are either certainly or potentially made of lead, a dangerous heavy metal that can cause permanent brain damage and other developmental problems in children if consumed. Staten Island’s Port Richmond had the highest proportion among individual neighborhoods.

The pipes need to be replaced for the health of the public, said Joan Matthews, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which contributed to the report. That’s why she and the report’s other authors want the City Council to pass a bill mandating that city agencies replace the lead pipes within the next decade.

New York City treats its water to prevent corrosion, the chemical reaction by which lead flakes off the pipes and into the water supply, according to the Department of Environmental Protection. But lead levels can still spike depending on the temperature of the water and the time since it was last turned on. Nearly a decade ago, Flint,…