Elevated Lead Levels Found in Newark Schools’ Drinking Water

 

NEWARK — Elevated levels of lead caused officials in New Jersey’s largest school district on Wednesday to shut off water fountains at 30 school buildings until more tests could be conducted, officials said.

The district, Newark Public Schools, told the State Department of Environmental Protection on Monday that annual testing found concentrations ranging from undetected to above the department’s action level for lead, which is 15 parts per billion. That level requires additional testing, monitoring and remediation.

The department, which requested test results from previous years to perform a complete analysis, said in a statement that no building had more than four samples above the action level.

The department also said lead had not been found in the city’s water supply. “In the vast majority of cases where lead is found in drinking water, it enters through the water delivery system itself when it leaches from either lead pipes, household fixtures containing lead or lead solder,” the department said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/10/nyregion/elevated-lead-levels-found-in-newark-schools-drinking-water.html?_r=0