NYC’s Riis Houses residents on edge after arsenic scare

The automated voicemail messages kept coming at Jacob Riis Houses one week after reports arrived that arsenic might be swimming in the public housing complex’s taps.

New testing shows the water is clear of arsenic, a recent voicemail promises, but the testing is incomplete — and a disease-causing bacteria, Legionella, may be in the water. Residents should not “drink or cook” with the water, the voicemail warns.

“The city Health Department is on-site at Riis Houses,” the nameless, robotic voice says, insisting that tenants’ safety is a top priority. “We’ll be there throughout the weekend to provide guidance to residents.”

Anxious residents, though, described the week without tap water as the latest indignity to fall upon the complex of 13 decaying buildings tucked into 12 acres on the eastern edge of Manhattan’s East Village.

The city said Friday that the lab that detected arsenic had retracted its finding, confirming it was false.

Legionella, which causes the sometimes fatal Legionnaires’ disease, primarily spreads through the air. The city has said it believes the detection of the bacteria in the water may, too, have been a false positive.

[ Manhattan NYCHA complex presumed free of arsenic, but likely ‘inaccurate’ Legionella traces detected in water ]

But the dreaded Legionella pathogen can sometimes invade the body if drinking water gets into the lungs, according to the federal government.

More than 3,900 people live at the New York City Housing Authority complex. They are not happy.

And as they scrounged up water bottles from stores — apartments have each received two cases of water daily, not enough for large families — and wondered about the safety of their shower taps, they remained unsure when their water nightmare would end.

“They have not told us yet when it will be or how long it will be,” Daphne Williams, 70, president of the complex’s tenant association, said Friday. “It’s hard.”

[ No dangerous arsenic levels in NYCHA housing project — testing company admits results were wrong, NYC officials say ]

She said the inability to cook is also driving up food costs for residents, and noted some people are avoiding showering, too, though the city has not advised that precaution.

One of those residents, Robert Valdes, 69, has lived in Riis Houses for more than six decades. He said his building, at 1225 FDR Drive on the north side of the complex, has lacked gas for months due to a leak.

Valdes is partially disabled and has had cases of water brought to his apartment by the housing authority — sometimes bottled, sometimes canned. He said his tap water was not cloudy this week, as it appeared in some units. But that did not give him the confidence to use it for…