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] Tests find elevated levels in water in 21 public school districts] All fixtures shut or fixed, officials say

FIGHTING LEADIN LI SCHOOLS

THE LONG ISLAND NEWSPAPER

COPYRIGHT 2016, NEWSDAY LLC, LONG ISLAND, VOL. 76, NO. 290

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SundayJune 19, 2016

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About 20 percent of the LongIsland school districts that saidthey tested for lead in water attheir schools reported findingthe metal at levels that causedthem to shut down fountainsand replace fixtures, accordingto a Newsday/News 12 Long Is-land survey.

In the wake of elevated leadlevels in the Flint,Michigan, pub-lic water supply and in water atschools in Newark, 102 districtstook steps on their own to testfor lead, the survey found, and 21reported test results that ledthem to make remediation ef-forts.

Lead is not safe for childrenand can lead to harmful healtheffects.

Some districts found the ele-vated levels in work sinks orother areas not used by children,but others reported detectingsuch levels of lead inwater foun-tains as well.

The districts with results high

enough to take action are Bay-port-Blue Point, Carle Place,Commack, East Rockaway, El-wood, Jericho, Locust Valley,Malverne, North Bellmore,Northport-East Northport,Oceanside, Plainview-Old Beth-page, Port Washington, River-head, Syosset, Valley Stream 13,Valley Stream 24, Valley Stream30, Valley Stream Central, Wan-tagh andWestbury.

“Health and safety issues are

always paramount to us,” saidPlainview-Old Bethpage Superin-tendent Lorna Lewis, who alsois president of the NassauCountyCouncil of School Super-intendents. “We believe that ifthere is a health hazard, we wantto know about it and do some-thing about it immediately.”

The recent water testing byLong Island schools comes aslocal, state and federal officialshave urged educators to bemore

vigilant in testing for the metal.“I had read about Flint and I

jumped on it with my board ofeducation immediately — wewere one of the first to get ourschools tested,” said PeterScordo, superintendent of the El-wood district. “We were fortu-nate not to have a lot of expo-sure, but wherever we had it wedealt with it immediately.”

In the past, a school in NewYork State did not have to test

for lead unless it had its ownwater supply and was not on apublic water system. But theState Legislature late Fridayadopted a bill that now requiresmandatory testing.

Public water suppliers musttest for lead and take action to re-duce it if the levels go above 15parts per billion. But in schools,the U.S. Environmental Protec-tion Agency recommends reme-diation be taken if a sample ex-ceeds 20 parts per billion of leadin water.

Ronkonkoma-based Enviro-science Consultants, which hastested between 150 and 200school buildings on Long Islandso far, counts any fixture thatmeasures over 15 parts per bil-lion of lead as an exceedance,while JC Broderick &Associatesin Hauppauge, which has testedmore than 400 school buildingson Long Island, counts the 20parts per billion measure as anexceedance.

Long Island districts largelyhave used one of those two com-panies for the testing.

No safe levelThere is no safe level of lead

exposure for children, who“can have health effects whenexposed to even the lowest lev-els of lead,” according to a May25 letter from the regional direc-tor of the EPA that was sharedwith districts. Drinking watercould account for 20 percent or

TOPSTORIES

] Elevated levelsin 21 LI districts] Fixtures shut orfixed, officials say

SPECIAL REPORT

Watertestsfindlead

atschools

Field technicians at Enviroscience Consultants of Ronkonkoma on Wednesday process about 450samples they collected from 10 Long Island schools. ] Video: newsday.com/education

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more of the total amount oflead to which a person is ex-posed, the letter stated.

Elevated blood lead levelscan cause learning disabilities,behavioral problems, poorclassroom performance and re-duced IQ and attention spansin children, who are more sus-ceptible to the harmful effectsof the metal than adults be-cause their bodies still are de-veloping, according to the EPA.

But the presence of lead inwater in school buildings doesnot necessarily indicate thatevery child who has consumedthe water faces a health threat,experts said.

“It doesn’t mean that any-body who’s exposed to lead —because we’re all exposed to it— is going to have a healthproblem,” Suffolk County De-partment of Health ServicesCommissioner Dr. JamesTomarken said. “It’s a relativerisk kind of situation.”

Increased testing plannedThe Newsday/News 12 sur-

vey found that 102 districtsbegan the lead testing processin the wake of the Flint andNewark findings. Many dis-tricts said they are planning toincrease routine testing inschools— even if no state legis-lation is passed into law.

Of the 105 districts that re-sponded to the Newsday/News12 survey, which began in earlyMay, 66 said they had eithertested their water fixtures forlead and were awaiting results,or they are planning to test. An-other 36 districts said they hadtested and have results in hand.Three districts — Deer Park,New Suffolk and Fire Island —said they do not plan to testtheir fixtures for lead, and 19did not respond.

Deer Park reported it usesonly filtered or bottled water.Fire Island said it switched tobottled water after superstormSandy and New Suffolk said itprovides water coolers for itsstudents.

Some districts said they testannually for lead and some re-ported that they do not con-duct regular testing, but addedtests this past year and plan tocontinue in the future. TheFranklin Square district, for ex-ample, said it is developing aprotocol for biannual testing of

all drinking fountains. ValleyStream’s 24 schools,which initially foundfive samples above theguideline, retested inMay and “everythingwas fine,” according totheir survey response.

Water samples atschools should betaken first thing inthe morning, afterwater has sat in the fix-ture overnight, to findthe highest possiblelevels of lead contami-nation, according to theEPA.

“If you’re the first kid todrink out of that fountain afterit sat for eight hours, that’s theworst-case scenario,” said Envi-roscience president and chiefexecutive Glenn Neuschwen-der.

The presence of lead in aschool does not mean it is inthe public water supply. Themetal can get into water atschool buildings by leachingfrom pipes and fittings in waterfixtures, such as drinking foun-tains and sinks.

Neuschwender said his com-pany has found that 90 percentto 95 percent of the time, fix-tures are the source of lead con-tamination.

But even if water from a fix-ture tests high, it doesn’t meanthat those same high levels oflead are being delivered in thewater throughout the day,Tomarken said.

“If water sits for six hours orlonger and then you open up atap, the initial rush of water isgoing to potentially have ahigher level [of lead] than ifyou let it run for 20 to 30 sec-onds,” he said. “It’s an unknownquantity in terms of how muchwould any particular child beexposed to and what would betheir risk.”

Various forms of exposureIn addition, there are many

different ways children are ex-posed to lead — including in-halation and ingestion of dustcontaining the metal, he said.Parents who remain concernedabout their children’s potentialexposure should have theirblood tested for lead, he said.

“We think that there’s a per-spective that has to be main-tained about some of these re-sults from the schools,”Tomarken said. “People need todiscuss them with their per-sonal physicians, and if they’reconcerned, they want to havetesting.”

East Northport parentRachel Friedman said she was“shocked” when she learned

that a water fountain at one ofher two sons’ schools, EastNorthport Middle School, hadlead levels at 19.8 parts per bil-lion.

Friedman said she supports abill passed late Friday that re-quires mandatory testing at thetap in schools.

“The most important thing ismaking sure this problem is cor-rected if there is a problem inyour school district because

when it comes right down to it— it is the kids who will be suf-fering,” she said.

The bill, backed by the NewYork League of ConservationVoters, calls for informing par-ents and teachers of test re-sults, providing state funds fortesting and remediation and re-quiring the state Department ofHealth to create an annual re-port based on these tests.

“No child or school em-

ployee should ever be put injeopardy by tainted water intheir school. Testing for lead indrinking water will ensure wejump-start the process of identi-fying and eliminating such a se-rious health crisis,” said stateSen. Carl L. Marcellino (R-Syos-set), chairman of the Senate Ed-ucation Committee and co-sponsor of the legislation.

With Michael R. Ebert andMichael Gormley

TOPSTORIES

Bayport-Blue Point Malverne SyossetCarle Place North Bellmore Valley Stream 13Commack Northport-East Northport Valley Stream 24East Rockaway Oceanside Valley Stream 30Elwood Plainview-Old Bethpage Valley Stream CentralJericho Port Washington WantaghLocust Valley Riverhead Westbury

Lead levelsThe districts where tests showed an elevated level of lead.Locations that had an elevated level have either been taken offline,fixed or a second round of tests did not show the increased levels:

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See lead test results forwater in LI schools.

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