Lead water testing in NYC schools

by Nicole Yu, staff reporter

For over a decade, more than 1,000 public schools in New York City have not tested their water  for elevated lead levels.

A crisis in Flint, Michigan sparked concerns about the safety levels of waters in schools. Residents have drunken the lead-contaminated water for almost a year. The aging pipes corroded and caused lead to leach into the water that later reached people’s homes, businesses, and even schools.

“NYC was rumored to have the best water in the world, so I guess that was a good reason why people ended up overlooking it. Compared to countries like Swaziland, the water we got might as well have come from heaven. At least there are no deadly diseases and parasites in there. But it is still pretty scary to know that even the most populated and advanced cities in the world could have poisoned water. I guess we can’t take any water’s safety for granted until we check every city’s water condition annually,” junior Cleo Zhang said.

In 2002, 739 schools were tested for lead in their waters and they all reported to have no elevated lead levels. After that, the water wasn’t tested again.

338 other buildings were found to have a samples that had rising lead levels in the water. However, after they were cleaned out, most of them were tested negative.
On an unveiled website, parents are able to track the results of lead testings in both, private and public schools that were built before 1986.