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More school districts release elevated lead level results

Posted at 5:45 PM, Oct 24, 2016
and last updated 2016-10-24 18:26:50-04

More and more test results are coming back from school districts in western New York.  And more and more schools are testing positive for having elevated levels of lead in their water. 

This is a list of school districts that have released findings that have elevated lead levels: 

Lackawanna City School District

Batavia Central School District

Williamsville Central School District

Orchard Park Central School District

North Collins Central School District

Clarence Central School District

Depew Union Free School District

Hamburg Central School District

Lewiston-Porter Central School District

Lockport City School District

Newfane Central School District

Allegany-Limestone Central School District

Portville Central School

Fredonia Central School District

Forestville Central School District

Silver Creek Central School District

At the beginning of the school year, Governor Andrew Cuomo passed a law that makes all schools test for lead. The law states, schools must test every source of water by the end of October. As the deadline gets closer, more and more schools are releasing their findings. In western New York, over a dozen have tested positive for lead.

In Williamsville, only the data for elementary schools have been released. There, Country Parkway Elementary school has seven water fountains with elevated lead levels. Forest Elementary School has four.

An acceptable amount of lead in water is 15 parts per billion. Most school’s results show water just barely over that number. One school has a drinking fountain with 2,850 parts per billion. That’s 190 times over the limit. The fountain is at the Wheelock School in Fredonia. It has been turned off and will be retested. 

Most of the water sources that have tested positive will be retested. That's usually done by flushing water through the source for eight hours and then it's retested

We have reached out to the Fredonia Central School District for comment.

The Williamsville School District says they will release more results daily.

If you haven't heard anything from your school district, remember a district has 10 days to make their findings public after receiving results.