The City of Syracuse plans to hire an independent contractor to conduct residential water sampling for lead after its testing protocol came under scrutiny from advocacy groups.
Concerns over testing accuracy arose when two employees were found to have improperly collected samples in early 2024, causing test results to falsely register higher lead levels than federal guidelines. City Chief Policy Officer Greg Loh said the incident prompted officials to reassess their approach.
"Clearly the experience we saw where protocol wasn't followed has caused us to reassess and say, 'is that the best deployment of our staff? Is that the best way to ensure that regulations are followed?'" Loh said. "We believe now using a firm that specializes in this kind of sampling is the right way to go."
One employee admitted the error and was disciplined, while the other returned to work after being cleared of involvement. Common Council members plan to vote Tuesday on hiring 120Water, a company specializing in water sampling, to take over the city’s testing program.
Councilor Jimmy Monto questioned whether the decision was directly in response to the recent testing problems. City Water Commissioner Robert Brandt acknowledged the incident played a role in the decision.
"This plays a role in it. We're looking to just take it out of our hands, give it to a third party, make it a little more manageable," Brandt said.
The New York Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups criticized the city’s previous testing, claiming samples were taken to intentionally show falsely lower lead levels. Lanessa Owens-Chaplin with the NYCLU said the approach misled residents about the severity of the problem.
"We are of the mindset that there's gross negligence on behalf of the City of Syracuse Water Commission and how they are testing their water," Owens-Chaplin said.
The advocacy groups have suggested a third party would provide more accurate results. In addition to the water sampling contract, councilors are also set to vote on approving $25 million to replace nearly 2,800 residential lead service lines.
