Lead Found In Water At Hopatcong Schools

HOPATCONG, N.J. – Lead levels in drinking water at three of Hopatcong School District buildings tested high recently, forcing the district to shut off all water for drinking and cooking purposes this week.

In a letter released Tuesday by Superintendent Cynthia Randina, the district announced testing was done in response to other districts in New Jersey seeing similar results.

“Upon learning of the issues districts in New Jersey are currently facing, the District’s Facilities Supervisor and I developed an action plan for testing for lead in drinking water in all of our schools,” Randina’s letter said. “The testing process involves taking two samples at each drinking source, such as water fountains and kitchen faucets. The District received the first sample results on April 11. Some of those samples taken at Hopatcong High School, Hopatcong Middle School and Durban Avenue School tested above the acceptable levels for lead as determined by the EPA.”

Since those results were returned, all drinking fountains and faucets used for cooking were immediately shut off and will remain that way until further testing is conducted.

All schools in the district have arranged for the use of bottled water for students and staff at all the schools.

Second testing is being conducted in the school kitchens Wednesday, April 13, and testing of the water fountains will be done April 18. Results take approximately two weeks to be reported.

The Environmental Protection Agency's acceptable limit for lead in water is 15/ppb, or parts per billion. Anything above that requires immediate attention. Hopatcong did not release its initial test findings.