Newark City officials took a slight setback in their efforts to distribute bottled water to about 15,000 households at risk for lead contamination when officials noticed hundreds of cases of water with expired -best used by- dates.
But according to a letter issued by NJ State Health officials, water does not expire and dates are only stamped on bottles for production reasons.
Newark City spokesman Frank Baraff said, "dating of water is not mandatory and has nothing to do with health aspects of the water.”
Baraff continued by saying the city stopped water distribution Tuesday morning until 3 p.m. as officials waited for new water supplies. The truckloads of water, however, were delayed and won’t arrive until 5 p.m. or 7 p.m.
"Residents can pick up the old water should they choose. A state official said 20,000 cases were delivered to Newark from the state’s emergency supply starting Sunday. It’s not clear how many of these cases have been handed out" according to Barraff.
The expired cases of water distributed did not sit well with residents even with NJ Department of health officials clarification letter with some Newark citizens calling for an investigation.