After Lead Found In Water, Guilford County School District Adds More Safety Measures

Guilford County School officials have a new plan to address concerns over high levels of lead found in drinking water at some buildings. The news comes after three schools tested for elevated levels in the district.

GCS partnered with city water officials to voluntarily test 99 schools and 10 administrative offices over the past several months. They took samples at the tap to look for lead contamination. Southeast Guilford Middle had the highest amount of lead - at 194 parts per billion. That's nearly 10 times more than the EPA's recommended threshold for drinking water.

Frazier Elementary and Allen Jay Elementary also had elevated lead levels.

The district says old faucets were the source, and they've since replaced them. Chief Operating Officer Scott McCully says new tests show the water is safe, and they will continue to take additional safety measures.

“The immediate thing that we are going to do is this flushing protocol each and every day at all of the schools and a parts inventory of all of our faucets, particularly prioritized around the three schools with either further sampling or faucet replacements in the future.”

State and federal law doesn't require districts to test for lead.

Greensboro's not alone. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools recently found a similar problem when it tested taps.  More than two dozen schools in the CMS system had high levels of lead contamination in their water.

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