Tuesday, June 13, 2017

SCHOOL DISTRICT TO HOLD FORUM SATURDAY ON HIGH LEAD LEVEL RESULTS

The Board of Education will hold a community forum on Saturday morning to address the recent revelations of high lead levels in nine drinking water sources at five district schools, according to Maplewood Health Officer Robert Roe.

Roe, who met with school district officials and health administrators from South Orange this morning, said the meeting will be held from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., but did not have a location. He said residents will be able to ask questions and find information on the lead testing results released Monday. 

He also said that preliminary findings indicate the water supply is safe and that the higher lead levels were the result of those specific water sources, faucets and drinking fountains, all of which have been taken out of use. 

"I think it means the water supply is safe because if it was like Flint, Michigan, they would all be contaminated," Roe said.

Roe added that all nine water sources will be retested to determine why their levels were increased.

"We're going to be retesting all of the hot spots," Roe said. "We are going to retest them to make sure the results were accurate."

He also said that each water source will be replaced along with other older fixtures, but had no details on which ones or when they will be replaced. 

Roe had no further details on why those fixtures were found to have high lead levels just one year after district-wide testing found them to be safe: "I can't explain that fully, it could be the water was sitting there for an extended period of time. We don't always know."

He also said that there was discussion of conducting lead testing in students, but no firm decision or plans. We will provide more details on the community forum location when it is released.

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