Public Act 99-0922 requires that all schools with students in fifth grade and under built before January 1, 1987 test sources used for drinking water or used for food preparation. Below are the results of the initial testing and how we addressed the problem areas at Lincoln and Washington School (White Heath results were not an issue). Lead in piping was used in all buildings and homes prior to using newer water lines. Due to the age of our buildings a majority of our water lines include lead. Over time these pipes leach some lead into the water – we are required to inform parents when levels are over 5 ppb while the EPA has an actionable benchmark of 15 ppb. On August 16-17, 2017, all elementary classroom sinks and water fountains were tested two times within one minute prior to the start of the school day – the results of these tests were received and analyzed today and a mitigation plan is going into effect immediately. After implementing our mitigation plan, we re-tested the sinks and water fountains on December 19, 2017. We found that our mitigation plans have been successful in reducing the lead in the testing results -- except for two sinks at Lincoln School (rooms G052 and G055) where we will replace the sink hardware this summer. We will continue to avoid using the classroom sinks for drinking water.
Please see the full letter to parents *here.
Complete testing results can be found *here.
Complete re-testing results can be found *here.