Lead Found In Drinking Water At Parsippany Schools

PARSIPPANY, N.J. – Several drinking fountains across Parsippany’s school buildings have higher than allowable levels of lead in the water and must be shut off, the district announced Monday afternoon.

Spurred by the recent news out of Newark, New Jersey’s school districts and its overwhelming amount of lead in the water, Parsippany decided to have its school buildings tested.

All 14 buildings underwent testing and included drinking fountains, food preparation areas, and home economics classrooms. Results for five schools were returned Monday, and Eastlake School had the highest scores.

The maximum allowable number by law is 15 parts per billion, or ppb, in a sample of water. According to the results at Eastlake, the findings showed:

• Hall to gym wc: 22 ppb.
• Classroom #5 wc: 16 ppb
• Classroom #14 wc: 270 ppb
• Classroom # 8 wc: 24 ppb
• Classroom #16 wc: 28 ppb

The district said the drinking fountains have been turned off and bottled water is being provided to students in those classrooms.

Parsippany High School returned one positive test which came from the boiler room, which has a valve not used by students or teachers, and is only for use by the custodian and maintenance personnel. That test showed a 220 ppb.

It was the same over at Central Middle School, where the water pump room – only accessed by maintenance personnel – had a 66 ppb.

The same occurred at Parsippany Hills High School, where the boiler room utility valve returned a test of 100 ppb.

None of those valves are tied to drinking water in any of the buildings. Brooklawn Middle School returned no high results.

A long-term plan is being devised at this time, and the district is awaiting results from the other nine school buildings in the township.