Yonkers defends decision to withhold school lead tests

YONKERS - Eighty water fountains and faucets at city schools have been shut off due to unsafe lead levels, including a high of 2,230 parts per billion — more than 100 times the federal threshold for safe drinking water, officials said Friday.

But Schools Superintendent Edwin Quezada continued to defend the district's decision not to release information, including which schools, to parents, saying that testing is not complete and it would be "irresponsible" to release the results before the process is finished.

"I think it's a question of incomplete information, and none of us are comfortable releasing information that's incomplete," Quezada said during an afternoon briefing. "The information will be released. We're working on that. We will take care of that. But to provide incomplete information would be irresponsible on our part and we are not comfortable with doing that. However, we are almost finished."

The 80 water fixtures that tested above 20 parts per billions were disconnected, and will be repaired or replaced. That's the threshold set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

John Carr, facilities director for the Yonkers schools, said samples have been taken from 1,053 water outlets in the district, and the final 139 will be collected over the weekend. The samples are being tested at a city-run lab, where up to 27 samples can be tested daily.

Yonkers Public Works Commissioner Thomas Meier said the testing has been complicated because many of the samples require "digestion," which means they have to be left to settle and undergo additional treatment before they can be tested.

"They're processing these as quickly as possible," Meier said. "Now, when you're talking about the incomplete data, several of them have been determined. But because we still need to go back and do the ones that require digestion."

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He said every school has at least one sample that required digestion, and therefore none of the 39 school buildings have had all of their water fixtures tested. The district said it would release the results to parents on a school-by-school basis, but only when that school's results are complete.

"We are being proactive, we are being supportive, we are being smart about the process," Quezada said. "We are allowing the research process to determine the next steps."

The Journal News/lohud reported on the controversy this week, revealing that some water fixtures at city schools were shut off due to unsafe lead levels and that parents had yet to be notified. The newspaper has filed Freedom of Information Law requests with the district and the city for the most recent lead reports.

The decision to do the testing, which is voluntary, began in March. The issue of unsafe levels of lead in drinking water came to the forefront last year when reports of dangerous levels of lead in the water supply of Flint, Mich., began to surface, drawing national headlines and widespread concern.

In Yonkers, there were concerns because of the age of the school buildings, which are 75 years old on average.

But the decision not to release the information to parents — whether incomplete or not — raised concerns among some.

Yonkers Councilman Christopher Johnson said Friday that he will request a hearing of the council's Education Committee on the issue.

“If they were going to take steps to shut it down, then I think parents kind of deserve to know what’s happening in and around their children and what the reason for it was," Johnson said. "Even if it was just taking precautions, then that’s something that should have been shared.”

Officials still won't reveal which schools have the 80 water fixtures that were shut off, or what building will be targeted for samples this weekend.

The district began the process in March by training school custodial staffs on how to take the samples. An initial sample is taken from each fixture, and then a second "flushed" sample is collected after the water is allowed to run. Those are sent to the lab for testing.

Meier, the public works commissioner, said the results do not indicate there is a larger issue with regard to the city's water supply. He said there is no lead in the drinking water in Yonkers, and that any lead levels found in the schools are the result of pipes or issues with the fixtures.

Twitter: @jfitzgibbon