One night last fall, I stood at my kitchen sink in New York City, filling a water bottle from the tap. I had just read a local report about lead pipes in Syracuse that, in some neighborhoods, are still directly connected to homes. I kept wondering: What’s actually in our drinking water?
So I ordered a lead test. (Hot tip: Tests are free to residents in New York City.)
A few weeks later, the results came back — all within safety limits. But I couldn’t stop thinking about families who might not be so lucky, or may never think to check. Even today, in 2025, tens of thousands of homes across New York are still served by aging lead pipes. Exposure to lead, especially for kids and pregnant women, can cause lifelong harm.
This is why cities like Albany began replacing 2,500 lead pipes (~40% of homes there are still connected to lead pipes), Syracuse is replacing more than 3,000 lead pipes, and Buffalo plans to replace about 40,000 lead pipes. It’s why you’re hearing more about this in the news. And it’s why so many of you asked me to investigate it…