Newark Schools Say They Began Tackling Lead in 2004

The Newark Public Schools district began addressing possible lead contamination in its drinking water back in 2004, as part of a partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The steps, according to district spokeswoman Dreena Whitfield, were examples of "common protocols," and included annual water tests and instructions to custodians to flush taps at least two minutes at the start of every day.

Whitfield released memosdating to 2007 that also instructed principals to tell students that they should let water fountains run for at least 30 seconds before taking a drink.  

"Water quality and lead level management is an on-going responsibility of any municipality, school district, or organization," Whitfield said in an email, "particularly for those with building stock that was built before lead regulations were put into place in the 1970s and 1980s, like the Newark Public Schools."

She did not explain why, if the protocols were followed, water samples collected in December showed elevated lead levels in 30 schools. The school district hasn't released results from previous tests, and officials said they were not sure if they were analyzed. The state Department of Environmental Protection said Friday it was going through data from the past four years.

U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said that he wasn't aware of any concerns about lead in schools when he was Newark mayor from 2006-2013.

"Nobody brought up the status of the pipes, no," Booker said in an interview with WNYC in Washington, D.C.

While schools are generally not required to test for lead in drinking water, in the early 2000s the EPA began partnerships with several urban school districts, including New York City, Newark and Paterson, N.J., to measure contaminants and undertake steps to reduce the risk of led poisoning. The recommendations that Newark has been issuing to its staff every year are similar to the EPA's guidelines, although in some cases the EPA recommends flushing fountains as much as 10-15 minutes, switching out old fountains with modern models, or replacing lead pipes altogether.