City says water at Jacob Riis Houses is safe to drink

By Christina Fan

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    NEW YORK (WCBS) — New York City says the water at Jacob Riis Houses is safe to drink.

It comes after a stunning reversal from the city about recent testing that found arsenic in the water at a public housing complex in the East Village.

The city then said those test results were not accurate, and the testing company is to blame.

Link: Read the city’s test results finding the water safe to drink Mayor Eric Adams went to the Jacob Riis Houses Saturday, and shared video on Twitter of him drinking water from the tap.

He was joined by Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan.

Both enjoyed a glass of water.

“Really wanted to show with our Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Dr. Vasan and the rest of the team as we tell the Riis Houses residents that it’s OK to drink the water,” Adams said. “I’m drinking it. The water’s safe to drink.”

“I know the last eight days have been unbearable for the residents of Jacob Riis Houses, but, this morning, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reviewed the final test results for contaminants and found the water to be well within EPA drinking water quality standards. We can confidently say the water at Riis Houses is and has been free of any discernible amount of arsenic since the initial tests were initiated in August and meets EPA standards. I would not ask the residents of Riis Houses to do anything I wouldn’t do, which is why I have already stopped by Riis Houses and drank the water myself,” Adams said in a statement.

Adams also said the city believes tests finding Legionella bacteria were also inaccurate.

“As public health experts have noted, Legionnaires Disease cannot be contracted by drinking water. Additionally, we are actively reviewing our Legionella surveillance data, and have found no reported or confirmed cases of Legionnaires Disease at Riis Houses over the last 12 months,” the mayor said.

As CBS2’s Christina Fan reports, it turns out the water may have been safe to use all this time. The city say the laboratory that provided the initial test results retracted its claims and – even worse – admitted to being the ones that introduced arsenic in the samples.

Tempers flared inside PS34 Friday, as angry tenants packed into a public meeting for residents of the Jacob Riis Houses.

“You need to value us,” one resident said.

They were trying to get to the bottom of a weeklong “do not drink” advisory regarding their tap water.

“There was a long line. It looked like a concert. At one point they said they reached the capacity. I left and came back,” said a resident.

Positive test results for arsenic were first released just before midnight on September 2nd. Residents were told not to drink or cook with their tap after trace amounts of the heavy metal were found in samples.

A follow-up test came back negative.

Now, the city says the lab who conducted the initial testing admitted to making an error, retracting their results.

“Now we must apologize to you for the past eight days,” said NYCHA Chair & CEO Gregory Russ.

Russ said NYCHA is working to determine how to compensate residents for the error.

“We thought these tests were not on point. But you know what? We have not done well with our residents and the community in speaking to issues about NYCHA,” Russ said.

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