Newark, New Jersey’s water crisis grew worse as authorities temporarily halted their distribution of bottled water to families whose tap water is contaminated with lead. Earlier this week, the Environmental Protection Agency told city officials to distribute bottled water “as soon as possible,” after it determined that water filters were ineffective at safely filtering lead from the water supply of thousands of homes. State and local officials began offering free bottled water to 15,000 Newark households, and hundreds of people queued in long lines in the summer heat for their allotment. But the officials stopped handing out the water after discovering many of the bottles had exceeded their best-by date.