Troy residents voice concerns to city council about the lead pipes

Environmental advocates and people from Troy are demanding answers after tests found elevated levels of lead in water samples.

They were voicing their concerns at Troy City Council’s utility meeting on Thursday evening. Some people gathered outside before the meeting to make their voices heard.

The city was given $500,000 in 2018 to remove residential lead service pipes. The money was never spent.
Advocates are calling on the council to take immediate action to ensure troy has lead free water.

Troy Mayor Patrick Madden addressed the council and explained why that money was never spent.
He says they didn’t have an inventory of where the led pipes were.
He says they did send out information, so people could take proper steps, so they wouldn’t ingest led contaminated water.

Madden presented a proposal to the council.
His plan would replace all of the service lines in the city.
However, he said in order to pay for it there would have to be a water increase.

His proposal calls for an increase of 1 dollar per 1,000 gallons. He believes this would generate $1.2 million dollars.
Troy residents would likely pay $48 dollars more a year in water fees.
He estimates that to replace all of the service pipes, it could cost $25 to $30 million dollars.

The mayor wanted to stress to the public that there is not water in the drinking water, but in individual service lines. Some on the council suggested using some funds from the American Rescue Plan to fund the project.

However, for many people, they want this problem addressed sooner, rather than later.
Madden is optimistic that they can start working to address this issue this year.

NewsChannel 13’s Jonathan Hunter is at the meeting. He will have updates Live at 9 on My 4, on NewsChannel 13 Live at 11 and on WNYT.com.