In the 2016-2017 school year, the New York City Department of Education conducted its first lead water testing within its school buildings. Many of which have been around since the early 1900s and due to lack of initiative and funding have been neglected/ignored. From these first findings, it was found that 83% of 132,276 buildings tested have high levels of lead coming from a fixture. A high-level reading is greater than 15 ppb(parts per billion).
While the Department of Education has worked towards fixing these problems, as of 2017 only 1,165 fixtures out of the original 10,633 contaminated fixtures have not been fixed. But these findings and reports raise an important question, how many other internal water pipes are also infected across the NYC area? While NYC is known for having some of the cleanest water in the United States, that only accounts for the source of the water. We must also become conscious of the possibility of issues that will occur within our own homes/buildings.
“Lead Contamination In New York City School Water: Interactive Map.” Hydroviv, 3 Apr. 2017, https://www.hydroviv.com/blogs/water-smarts/lead-in-nyc-schools.
