NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — NYCHA started distributing bottled water at the Jacob Riis Houses in the East Village on Friday after a test revealed unacceptable levels of arsenic in the drinking water there.
Two anonymous sources told The City that test results from about two weeks ago revealed traces of arsenic were present in the water despite the public housing authority not taking action until Friday, though NYCHA denied this claim in a statement to the New York Post.
A NYCHA spokesperson told The City that the water at the development had previously tested positive for arsenic but the results were not confirmed until Friday.
Many of the 2,600 tenants who live in the housing complex were already avoiding the water because it has been murky.
Mayor Eric Adams went to the Jacob Riis houses on Friday night to hand out water to residents.
“NYCHA immediately initiated water testing in August after receiving reports of cloudy water at Riis Houses,” said Adams spokesperson Fabien Levy in a tweet. “Prelim results today from retesting showed arsenic levels higher than fed standards for drinking water, & while there’s no evidence linking it to the cloudy water, we’ve taken action including providing support & drinking water to every household as we conduct more testing.”
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