Can the Department of Education Get the Lead Out?

Every water fixture that tested positive for lead in New York City schools has been remediated, according to the Department of Education. There's only one problem: for hundreds of water sources, remediation didn't work. 

This latest revelation comes nearly two years after the city was first required to test all water sources using strict new standards set by the state. New York State was the first state in the country to require such testing.

During an initial round of testing, the city found 12,457 school fixtures were leaching lead; the vast majority of public schools had at least one faucet testing over the "action level" of 15 parts per billion. Last year, the city set out to fix the problem, focusing mostly on replacing fixtures themselves, rather than examining pipes or larger plumbing issues. This initial effort seemed to mitigate lead problems -- most of the time.

But for 1,165 fixtures, this initial effort was not enough. In a spreadsheet the DOE posted this week (click on the "Remediation Summary" here), a reader can see exactly which water sources still aren't fixed, down to a precise location:  in August, a schoolyard water fountain at P.S. 146 in Queens tested just over the legal limits, at 19 ppb; earlier, in an office at Stuyvesant High School, a bubbler tested at 81 ppb. Test results range from just a few points over the "acceptable" limit to thousands of parts per billion.

When asked how the city will address the remaining problem fixtures, the Department of Education said they were deciding on a "case by case" basis.