Nyack schools: Lead problems fixed

All water fountains and sinks in the Nyack school district are cleared for use after the summer was spent remediating a handful of fixtures that had higher-than-normal levels of lead in the water.

In an update on the district's website Friday morning, Superintendent James Montesano said test results of all fixtures now fall below the Environmental Protection Agency's standard of 20 parts per billion.

EARLIER COVERAGE: 97 percent of water samples are lead-free

The district's effort to conduct water tests began last spring and, with help from Rockland BOCES Health and Safety technicians, all fountains and sinks were tested, for a total of 201 samples from throughout the district.

Results for all drinking fountains in the district's seven buildings fell beneath the EPA's action level. However five sinks tested above the threshold, with levels ranging between 21 parts per billion and 23 parts per billion, and were immediately turned off, Montesano said.

After further testing, lead filters were installed on four sinks - two at Liberty Elementary, one at Valley Cottage and one in the Hilltop Administration Building. The fifth sink, which was located in a classroom at Liberty, was removed because it had not been used in many years,

Subsequent samples from those sinks have shown results that fall below the EPA standard, he said.

Nyack officials, like many other school officials across the lower Hudson Valley, said they were compelled to test after seeing the water contamination crisis that occurred in Flint, Michigan, and Newark, New Jersey, schools.

Seven of Rockland County's eight public school districts worked with Rockland BOCES over the summer to conduct any needed remediation on fixtures that produced samples containing high lead levels.

"Each district made it clear that the top priority was that students and staff had access to healthy drinking water before the start of the school year," Rockland BOCES spokesman Scott Salotto said.

On Wednesday — less that a week before students head back to school — East Ramapo became the last school district in Rockland to reveal its testing results.

According to the district, elevated levels of lead were discovered in at least nine of its buildings and the fixtures have been marked as off-limits while a plan to address the problem is determined.

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