Furious residents of Manhattan’s Jacob Riis Houses blasted the city Saturday for keeping them in the dark on the arsenic that has contaminated their drinking water.
“It’s scary,” said Daisy Ayala, 35, a mother of six who was incensed about the potential effect of the dangerous heavy metal on her young children.
“We used it the other day, we used it the day before. What are we supposed to do?” Ayala demanded.
Ayala lined up with her neighbors Saturday morning to claim boxes of city-supplied bottled water — but said that the amount she received would never cover her family’s needs.
“I have an 11-month-old,” she complained. “They only gave me two boxes … when I have a family of eight.”
Residents of Manhattan’s Jacob Riis Houses blasted the city for keeping them in the dark on the arsenic that has contaminated their drinking water. William Farrington
Daisy Ayala said she is scared about the water’s effects on her young children. William FarringtonResidents disputed NYCHA officials’ claims that water tests revealing unsafe levels of arsenic at the huge East Village complex only came to light on Friday.
“They knew about this for two weeks and they only came to tell us last night about it,” a tenant named Evelyn charged. “They knew about the water coming out brown and rusty and they didn’t do anything … Look what we’re going through now.”
Officials at the Department of Environmental Protection did not respond to questions about how arsenic — a cancer-causing metal that is toxic at low levels — could be found in city drinking water, which flows from a heavily protected watershed in the Catskill Mountains.
Residents of NYCHA’s Jacob Riis houses line up for bottled water. William Farrington
Experts are stumped about how arsenic could get into NYC water. William Farrington
Residents say officials knew about the water issue well before Friday. William FarringtonThe test result is “a mystery,” said David Soll, an environmental studies expert whose book “Empire of Water” is the definitive history of New York City’s water system.
“Usually, arsenic is associated with well water,” Soll told The Post. “It can be found in small community water systems that draw from aquifers and wells, not in a reservoir system like New York’s.”
The DEP’s 2021 report on the city’s water system found no arsenic in any of the 45,000 samples it analyzed that year.
“These concerns are limited only to Riis Houses at this time,” a mayor’s office spokesperson said. “New Yorkers throughout the city can continue drinking and using tap water as they usually do.”
