High levels of lead in water still at many NYC schools; check to see if your child's school is on the list!
In all the news about peeling lead paint in schools, there has been little attention given to the fact that there were more than 500 NYC public schools and/or preK centers in which lead was found in the water above the “action” level of 15 parts per billion.
The DOE spreadsheet showing the lead test results of water outlets in 534 schools is posted on this page. DOE says that “One third of all schools were tested in this round, with the remainder of schools scheduled to be tested in 2019 and 2020.” Of those 534 schools, more than 80% had at least one outlet with elevated levels of lead. The detailed DOE spreadsheet is here.
We created a new spreadsheet, adding tabs for fixtures found to have lead above the action level of 15 ppb sorted by district and by concentration (with outlets found to have the highest levels at the top). The new spreadsheet is here.
Some of the schools with the highest levels are listed below, showing outlets with lead at 54 to 873 times the action level, with the most alarming results from a cold water faucet in the 4th floor boys bathroom in Prospect HS. This outlet emitted water with lead at an incredible 13,100 parts per billion. In that same school as well, a hallway fountain (or “bubbler”) on the 3rd floor was found to emit water at 3,070 parts per billion. CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: High levels of lead in water still at many NYC schools; check to see if your child's school is on the list!
