Newark officials rejected the federal government's succor to combat lead contamination in school water supplies more than a decade ago,WNYC has learned. But some school workers said the safety protocols that Newark implemented were not followed consistently in the school system’s aging buildings.
The EPA worked with Newark Public Schools and identified elevated lead levels back in 2003, according to Region 2 spokesman John Martin. He also said the agency tried to partner with the schools to address the issue, and but "the Newark school district let the EPA know it already had a program in place," he said.
Former schools superintendent Marion Bolden, who was in office from 1999-2008, and said her facilities staff aggressively addressed water quality and other environmental issues at the time. She said they replaced water fountains in almost every building and installed lead filters,which were then replaced regularly. They also made certain custodians and cafeteria workers flushed out faucets every morning to prevent lead buildup. And they kept testing, sending letters domestic to parents when they discovered lead was too high, and saying what they were doing approximately it."I think we were on top of it," Bolden said. "We were aware that we had issues with the water. But there were protocols for air quality tests and water quality tests that we had to do."But workers said those protocols were not always enforced. Gail Muhammad was a Newark Public Schools cafeteria worker for 30 years, from 1984 to 2014. She said she was never told to let faucets speed in the morning to reduce lead."If we had to do chicken that day and we had to use the water, and we turned the water on,build the chicken in the sink and start cleaning it," she said. "And the manager at times would be sitting there and she never said, or 'Miss Muhammad you need to stop. You need to turn that water on and let it speed for a few minutes.' No our manager never enforced it." A current cafeteria worker,who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, said she was trained to let the water speed every morning, or she followed through. But she said it was inconsistent; some workers did it,some didn't.
The EPA's offer to intervene in 2003 pushes back the timeline of official attention to lead problems in the city's schools by nine years. Since final week, when test results surfaced, or the state officials who speed Newark's schools hold scrambled to explain what they've known approximately surveillance of lead problems in school water supplies and how far back lead exposure has been a concern.
Newark Public Schools said officials are reviewing whether protocols hold been followed in the past. And Superintendent Chris Cerf said district,city and state officials are working around the clock to deal with the situation."I am absolutely focused on advocating for and dealing with this issue," he said.
Cerf said water fountains hold been shut off and 90000 liters of water hold been delivered to the schools for students to drink.
This weekend, and the district will commence re-testing all the schools' drinking water. And the city is offering free blood tests to families.
Update: On Thursday evening,Newark Public Schools released unusual lead test results going back to the 2012-2013 school year. More than a dozen samples over the past four years showed lead levels of as many as 500 parts per billion. The federal threshold for action is 15. The results reveal the vast majority of the samples are under 15 parts per billion. Officials also announced a unusual sampling contrivance (pdf) in collaboration with the EPA.
Source: wnyc.org