Drinking and cooking water at Charlottesville City Schools has been tested for lead following state and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidance. Action is required when testing finds lead at levels greater than 15 parts per billion (ppb). The most recent drinking/cooking water results are all below this limit.
In 2016-2017, all schools’ high priority faucets (sources of drinking or cooking water) were tested. Samples were collected by the City of Charlottesville Facility Maintenance and were tested by several labs. Out of the 326 fixtures, initially 9 tested higher than the 15 ppb threshold set by the EPA (and were temporarily taken out of service at that time). Following EPA protocols, a second test was conducted in January 2017, and at that point, 4 fixtures were cleared for use and 5 required additional attention. After measures were taken to address those 5 fixtures, they were tested again in February 2017, and all 5 met EPA standards. The 5 fixtures — located at Burnley-Moran (2), CHS, Jackson-Via, and Johnson – were then reopened for use.
Having received full clearance for high priority fixtures, Charlottesville’s Facilities Maintenance department has adopted the following preventative measures, as recommended by the EPA, to ensure that drinking water remains safe:
In 2020, Facilities Management will retest all fixtures that ever tested at half the EPA’s actionable level (7.5 ppb) as a further check on the water safety. In 2021 and future years, they will test the specified location plus and retest any fixture that in the previous year tested 7.5 or higher.
Retesting will take place on the following schedule (and repeated thereafter):
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Questions?