The Village has responded to a “misleading and misguided” article published by The Guardian (a British newspaper) that was critical of the Village’s water collection and testing protocol.
The article was about lead contamination and testing procedures in the "81 most populous cities and towns east of the Mississippi".
Croton is not one of the most populous cities and towns, nor does the evidence indicate that the Croton water supply is unhealthy.
Croton United has disagreed with the previous administration on many issues, but there has always been broad support for the efforts of the Board of Trustees as they dealt with maintaining the quality of our water supply.
As former Mayor Wiegman correctly observed at a work session a few years ago, home plumbing systems account for most of the impurities in residential tap water. This is particularly true with lead contamination.
Homes built before 1930 used lead pipes, and lead solder was used for home plumbing into the 1980s. Prior to 2014, many home plumbing fixtures contained lead content of up to 8 percent. Those sources of lead have nothing to do with any municipal water supply and in fact are beyond the control of the Village.
Contrary to the implications of the newspaper article, there is no indication at all that any Village official has ever used testing procedures which would prompt "criminal charges" against CoH Village employees similar to the case in Flint, Michigan.
Croton United is not aware of any evidence that either current or former elected officials have acted in bad faith or tampered with water test results. On the contrary, our elected officials and our Village Engineer and our current and our former Village Manager have consistently put politics aside when it comes to the quality of our drinking water.
The newspaper article is not truthful and does a disservice to all the Trustees and Village employees who have worked over the past decade to serve the residents of Croton.