Watts mayor calls for more testing after lead found in tap water

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called on the city’s housing authority and largest water utility to conduct further testing for the potent neurotoxin after an environmental study found that water at the Watts public housing complex was contaminated with lead.

The discovery of lead in Watts’ tap water shocked city leaders and raised serious questions about the age of pipes serving low-income residents. Although California banned lead pipes in 1985, the average age of homes in Watts is nearly 77 years old, making the South Los Angeles community more likely to have corroded lead pipes.

“It is absolutely unacceptable for families to be without access to safe, clean drinking water,” Bass wrote on X.

A Southern California research team collected more than 500 water samples from May to August from taps in private homes and public housing in Watts. Twenty of the samples contained detectable levels of lead. Eight of the samples came from properties owned by the Los Angeles City Housing Authority: five in Nickerson Gardens, two in Jordan Downs and one in Imperial Court.

Two of the five samples at Nickerson Gardens exceeded the EPA’s action level of 15 ppb. The public housing complex — the city’s largest with 1,066 units — had the highest lead level at 22 ppb. The original portions of Nickerson Gardens, Empire Yards and Jordan Downs were built in the 1940s and 1950s.

Although lead has been used historically in plumbing and paint, there is no safe level of exposure. Ingesting or inhaling lead can cause permanent damage to a young child’s brain and has been linked to learning disabilities, poor concentration and unusual behavior.

Daniel Hogg, a UCLA doctoral student and lead author of the study, which was funded by the Better Watts Initiative, a community advocacy group, said she suspected the problem was far more widespread than the researchers found with their $40,000 grant.

“It’s the cumulative effect of environmental injustice that’s hurting the community,” Hogg said. “It’s the result of malicious neglect by public officials, elected officials, different city agencies and the mayor. That’s why Watts continues to be at the bottom and continues to experience abject poverty.”

“The purpose of this study is to draw attention to this problem,” she added. “We don’t have more money. [for testing]so we are turning this over to the authorities because ultimately they own the property and we have to work with them to resolve this issue.”

Bass said last week that she had convened staff from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the Housing Authority and pledged to conduct further testing in public housing in Watts and elsewhere in Los Angeles.

On Tuesday, Los Angeles City Councilman Tim McOsker, whose district includes Watts, introduced a motion calling for a comprehensive plan to identify the source of the lead and take steps to remove the contamination.

“The findings released by the Better Watts Plan are deeply concerning,” said Myosko. “This is about the health and safety of our neighbors, friends and family. Like all Angelenos, the people of Watts deserve a safe and healthy home, and that undoubtedly includes access to safe, clean water.”

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power encourages Watts residents to request a free water sample from the city by emailing waterquality@ladwp.com or calling (213) 367-3182.

“We understand this is a troubling situation,” said Jonathan Leung, DWP water quality supervisor. “No one wants to hear that there might be lead in their drinking water where they live. So we really want to let them know that we care and we’re here to help in any way we can.”

DWP recently conducted two surveys to characterize materials in the city’s approximately 740,000 water pipes. Leung insisted the city found no lead in the public pipes that run from water mains to sidewalks, or in customer-side pipes that run from sidewalks to buildings. The department has not yet filed a report on customer-side water pipes with the state Water Resources Board.

“In the first phase of utilities, which was completed in 2019, we did not find any issues,” Leung said. [more recent] We didn’t find any inventory on the client side.”

But the city still finds lead in tap water during routine annual testing of homes. Public water systems are required to test for lead under federal regulations. If more than 10% of tap water samples contain lead levels above 15 ppb, the water system must take action, including implementing more corrosion controls or replacing pipes.

Los Angeles is not at risk of triggering enforcement action. However, at least two tests last year found lead levels above the federal action level, including one in September 2023 that came in at nearly 75 ppb.

Lead contamination can be caused by decades-old plumbing systems in buildings, Leung said, adding that older faucets, fittings and indoor plumbing sometimes contain lead solder and components. Outdated brass faucets, in particular, contain a significant percentage of lead, but California banned these plumbing materials from containing more than 0.25% lead in 2010.

In Los Angeles, city-owned public housing units have plumbing made of copper or galvanized steel, according to the housing authority. Fixtures within the units are made of brass or steel.

The Los Angeles Housing Authority “is working with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and community representatives to test all of its housing developments,” the agency wrote in a statement to The New York Times. “Our top priority is the safety, health and well-being of our residents. HACLA takes residents’ concerns seriously and is prepared to take all appropriate steps as needed.”

Yirk Turner, 55, lived in a five-bedroom apartment in Jordan Downs with his mother and nine siblings from the 1970s to the mid-1980s. Although he never worried about his drinking water, he joined the researchers, going door to door to collect 250 milliliters of tap water.

When the team detected brain-damaging lead in the neighborhood where he grew up, Turner thought back to his own childhood and wondered if his family had been exposed, too.

“As kids, we drank that water and cooked with that water,” Turner said. “We weren’t concerned then. But now it’s urgent because I know there are people whose children and grandchildren could be affected.”

Researchers surveyed Watts residents and found that the vast majority relied on bottled water, even though bottled water is many times more expensive than tap water. Researchers said a history of drinking water issues has fueled distrust in the community. Most notably, in 2016, residents complained about discolored water coming out of their taps, ranging from yellow to almost black.

Liang, the water quality supervisor, said the discoloration was not related to lead. At the time, Watts had two groundwater wells with naturally high levels of iron and manganese. When the well water is treated with chlorine, these minerals form dark particles. Normally, DWP flushes the pipes to remove such substances, but it has stopped this practice due to the ongoing drought, allowing sediment to accumulate and contaminate local water sources.

“These sediments accumulated over five years,” Liang said. “So eventually the water became darker in color — and that was entirely our responsibility. We eventually fixed the problem by flushing all the pipes and stopping using those wells.”

For Tim Watkins, president of the Watts Labor Community Action Center, the results of the water sampling validate long-standing complaints from community members about environmental degradation and chronic community neglect.

Watkins, who has lived in Watts for 71 years, has tried to call attention to air pollution and trash dumping near the community’s railroad. He opposes industrial facilities that have covered large swaths of the community in heavy metal, including S&W Atlas Iron and Metal, a notorious scrap metal recycler.

But he said he realized the only way to take action was to gather evidence.

In 2020, Watkins’ organization received a grant to conduct water testing from the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, a New Jersey-based philanthropy focused on public health. Watts Community Group recruited researchers from UCLA and USC to conduct the water sampling.

Soon after the study was published, Watkins received a call from Bass, who pledged her support for investigating the source of lead contamination.

“To me, this is just the tip of the iceberg,” Watkins said. “The soil, the water, the air are all contaminated — and no one is taking responsibility.”

“All of a sudden, the science has become legitimate,” Watkins said. “The attention is new. The concerns are old.”