Burlington Township Schools believes in continual and transparent communication with our school community. This newsletter focuses on the results of our recent lead testing.
In compliance with recently enacted New Jersey law, all buildings in the District were tested for the potential of lead content in water sources. Below is detailed information explaining the test results and remediations taken thus far.
In July 2016, the New Jersey Department of Education adopted mandatory regulations regarding testing for lead content in drinking water in all public schools throughout the state. All school districts were subsequently provided with specific instructions on development of a plumbing profile and lead sampling plan. Schools are required to test within one year of the enactment of the new law and retest for lead content once every six years after initial testing. The district currently plans to test one building per year, as we do for radon, to ensure we remain in compliance and aware of any potential lead content issues.
The District tested over 200 sources of water throughout our five buildings. The Burlington Township High School-Main Building, Burlington Township Middle School, and Fountain Woods Elementary School had no outlets test above the acceptable EPA limits. Eight sources, two located in Burlington Township High School-Hopkins Building and six located in B. Bernice Young Elementary School, tested positive for the presence of lead above the acceptable EPA limit on the initial tests. Three of the eight outlets have been permanently removed from service.
A fourth outlet is a non-drinking water source presenting no potential for human consumption.
Of the remaining four outlets, two have already been remediated and are back in service. The last two include a water fountain and kitchen sink, both of which are currently out of service and under remediation. The details of these particular remediations may be found in the letters listed below.
Over the course of the last several years, the District has begun to change older water fountains to new water fountains and/or bottle filling stations with filters and cooling elements. After the new lead testing regulations were announced, the District decided to proceed with the testing before changing any additional units to allow the information collected to drive the replacement plan.
The District has created a website that is dedicated to Environmental Testing Results
