Thousands of water fountains, faucets and water bottle refilling stations in New York City schools sat out of commission for months while they awaited additional safety testing or repairs to remove lead. That’s according to a new report from the city Comptroller’s Office.
The audit found more than 5,700 water fixtures had lead levels that violated environmental regulations in 2018 and 2019. Of those, only 537—less than 10%—were fixed and ready for follow-up testing within a month of being flagged.
Once they were fixed, close to 30% of the water sources didn’t receive an additional test until after the two-week deadline laid out by the Department of Education (DOE), according to the report.
“No child, teacher, or member of school staff–whether in Washington Heights or Brownsville–should be exposed to lead in our public school buildings,” Comptroller Scott Stringer said in a statement. “Our audit found that the DOE’s testing and remediation of lead was perennially delayed—potentially exposing both students and staff to dangerous levels of lead in school drinking water.”
The report found 11% of school water sources checked between 2016 and 2019 had high lead levels, amounting to 15,860 fixtures spread across 1,323 schools. Overall, 84% of city schools had at least one water fixture with elevated lead.
3 comments:
I always wondered why baby boomers are so dumb. It's all in the lead.
"I always wondered why baby boomers are so dumb" Like a fox. You should see my 401K and Union pension. I paid $45,000 for a three faimily house (1977) in Ridgewood that I rent out while I live in Malba.
@“Like a Fox”
Is that you Gino? Still can’t get anyone to work for you cause you only pay slave wages? How’s that 1960s lego set coming along. No, the round peg doesn’t go into the square hole. Com’on man!
Post a Comment