Lead in Water at Newton Elementary School
Dear Newton Community,
On Tuesday, we wrote to inform the Newton Community about the recent water testing conducted by the City of Newton in the school district buildings. For the past 14 years, in compliance with state mandates, the City of Newton has sampled the water for lead and copper in two school buildings per year on a rotating basis. This year, the City made the decision to test samples from all schools because of the national focus on water quality in cities, towns, and school districts across the country.
Attached you will find the results of the tests conducted (results pending at Carr as bubblers were tested later). As reported on Tuesday, all samples from school buildings fell below EPA actionable levels for Lead (>15 ug/L) and Copper (>1300 ug/L), with the exception of Burr Elementary. All water fountains at Burr have been shut off and bottled water has been made available to students and staff. A second round of testing was conducted at Burr on Wednesday and results are pending. A remediation plan will be put in place once the issue is diagnosed.
Out of an abundance of caution, the City will conduct additional testing at Horace Mann and Ward, where results at two fountains showed a level above 10 (EPA actionable level >15 ug/L). We do not believe there is reason to turn off the fountains at these schools given the result was below the actionable level.
We are working closely with the Mayor and city officials to address water monitoring in our school buildings going forward. As always, the health and safety of our students, staff, and families are a top priority for the Newton Public Schools.
Sincerely,
Setti D. Warren
Mayor of Newton
Please select the following link for a pdf version of this letter: Water Testing Results.pdf
Please select the following link for the results of the testing: Water Quality Testing – District Results.xlsx
