Newark's Drinking Water Problem: Lead And Unreliable Filters
Officials in the New Jersey city began to hand out water bottles this week after the Environmental Protection Agency said filtered drinking water samples exceeded government thresholds on lead levels.
Lead contamination in Newark, N.J.'s, drinking water is not a new problem, but the city's fleeting solution has become newly problematic.
Officials in Newark, the state's largest city, which supplies water to some 280,000 people, began to hand out bottled water Monday.
That's because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has questioned water filters that the city distributed to residents.
Last fall, Newark, even going door-to-door to reach families with lead service lines. The toxin is believed to have leached into drinking water through the old pipes between water treatment plants and people's homes. Free filters and cartridges would remove "99%" of lead, .
