Lead In SOMA School Water: Seth Boyden Fountain Shows Reduced Levels, Officials Say

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — The South Orange-Maplewood School District announced Friday that new test results from a drinking water fountain at Seth Boyden Elementary School show significantly lower levels of lead than last recorded in May.

After recently announcing that samples at several facilities in the district tested above the U.S. EPA action level for lead in drinking water - including a girls' locker room, a teachers' lounge and the concession stand at Underhill Field – the district retested a water fountain at Seth Boyden that had a finding of 444 parts per billion in the sample taken in May.

The two samples came in at less than 1 part per billion of lead, school administrators said.

• See related article: Maplewood, South Orange Schools Find Elevated Lead Level In Water

District administrators also retested the other eight water sources which had results above the action level of 15 parts per billion, and expect the results from those tests “next week,” Superintendent John Ramos told parents in a Friday letter.

“This summer, we are planning to replace all of the water fountains and/or faucets which had elevated lead levels in the initial testing, and we are installing filtration systems on all of our drinking fountains which provide drinking water or are used for food preparation, as a preventative measure,” Ramos wrote.

“Although the replacement of the drinking fountains and/or faucets and the installation of filtration systems are not required by the state, we will undertake these measures to provide additional safety to our drinking water,” Ramos stated.

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