Newark Mayor Ras Baraka Says Water Is Safe After Contractors Lied About Replacing Lead Pipes

A construction company is accused of scamming the New Jersey city out of $10M.

Newark, New Jersey’s Lead Line Replacement Program, once seen as a national model for infrastructure reform, hit a setback when it was revealed that construction company JAG Group Enterprises took $10 million from the city but failed to replace some of the lead pipes it was contracted to remove. This discovery blemished the program’s reputation, raising concerns about oversight and accountability in what was considered a groundbreaking effort to address lead contamination in Newark’s water system.

According to NBC New York, two central figures in the company’s scheme are CEO Michael Sawyer and Foreperson Latronia Sanders. Sawyer is accused of submitting photos of copper pipes to the city, claiming to the city that his company had used those pipes to replace lead pipes.

Sanders, meanwhile, is accused of falsely informing inspectors that there was no need to remove lead pipes through text messages and allegedly told crews to polish existing copper pipes so they would look like new pipes.

On Oct. 3, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka emphasized that the city’s water was still safe to drink because the city’s plan to use a chemical, orthophosphate, to keep the pipes from corroding was working as intended, along with the distribution of water filters to residents.

“We’re proud of the work that we’ve done and we’re happy that we’ve come to an end. When the U.S. attorney identified initial sites, we went to those sites. We changed what they showed us immediately that day. We continue to do that as we go. I don’t want us to have this assumption that people were at risk of being exposed to lead because that never, ever was the case,” Baraka said.

During an appearance on All Things Considered, Mayor Baraka stressed that the city’s drinking water was “absolutely” safe. he replied, “In fact, the last test that we had came out at zero parts per billion for lead, which means that we have less lead or no lead in our water. Bottled water is allowed to have five parts per billion of lead in the water. We have zero in Newark,” Baraka said.

When asked if the actions of JAG Group put residents at risk, Baraka replied, “No. I mean, we have orthophosphate in the water. We put it in, in 2019, which was the reason, we had the problem in the first place. Our own sodium silicate stopped working. So we had to replace that with orthophosphate. We did that in 2019. We’ve been in compliance since 2019 to the present. I mean, that’s what the NJ DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) and all of our testing has borne out.”

Baraka continued, “And the last test, as I told you earlier, came up with zero parts per billion. So the orthophosphate works, right? So even if we remove the lead service line, we still have to protect people who have old lead fixtures in their house. They might have sinks that have lead fixtures. They may have stuff under the sink with lead fixtures. And so the orthophosphate stops the lead from leaching into the water. And so it was working then and it’s working now.”