Southold Union Free School District announced today that it also has detected lead in plumbing fixtures in its school buildings, joining Greenport and Riverhead school districts.
Out of 144 testing sites in the district, nine were found to have levels of lead above the Environmental Protection Agency’s guidelines.
Greenport school board acted earlier this week to access emergency funds to fix the contaminated plumbing before the start of school.
Southold UFSD says it immediately disconnected all affected faucets, it said in a letter posted to the school’s website this afternoon. Six of the nine outlets have already been replaced, the letter says. The remaining three will be remedied before the start of school next month.
Lead contamination occurs when materials containing lead within a plumbing system begin to corrode. Buildings with plumbing systems susceptible to lead contamination were mostly built before 1986, when Congress put restrictions on lead-based materials.
A bill passed by the State Legislature in June, which awaits signature by the governor, would mandate “periodic testing” for all school districts and would provide additional building aid through the State Education Department to cover the costs of screening, testing and remediation.
Regardless of the outcome of the bill, Southold and Greenport districts both say they “plan to conduct annual lead tests moving forward.”
