Mike Morsch, Regional Editor
By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer, Lead levels in drinking water exceeded federal regulations at three elementary schools in Princeton, school officials said this week in reporting partial test results for the district., The district said readings were higher than the EPA’s “action level” of 15 parts per billion at two water fountains and a faucet at Johnson Park Elementary School, a water fountain at Community Park Elementary School and a water fountain at Riverside Elementary School., “The results indicate that the lead in the water seems to be coming from fixtures on the fountains of faucets rather than pipes, since only a few faucets and fountains tested above EPA regulations,” Johnson Park Principal Bob Ginsberg wrote to parents., The district has said the water had been shut off to those fountains and faucet, and that further retesting would be done., School districts in New Jersey are required to test for lead in their water once every six years, a mandate the state handed down in 2016., “The Princeton Public Schools tested levels last year and we are taking the extra precaution to test again this year,” the district said in a message on its website., School board member Dafna Kendal, the chairwoman of the board’s facilities committee, said Tuesday that the district would complete testing at Princeton High School, John Witherspoon Middle School and Littlebrook Elementary School by May 5, with results to be released afterward.
