Dozens of school districts across Long Island have found lead in their drinking water this year, the New York State Department of Health announced on Tuesday.
More than 40 districts in Suffolk County and over 20 in Nassau County tested positive for lead, according to the new report.
The discovery comes after the state reduced the acceptable amount of lead in school drinking water from 15 parts per billion to five parts per billion in 2022.
Connetquot Superintendent of Schools Joseph Tanen Centamore refuted the health department’s data, writing in a letter to the school community that there was “an error in the state’s publicly reported database” after all 70 schools in his district were reported to have tested positive.
A spokesperson for the health department later confirmed that only two schools tested positive.
In response to questions from News 12 Long Island about where the mistake came from, the spokesperson said the school district “initially uploaded incorrect data and had subsequently corrected the error, however, this correction was not made in time to be included in the most recent data upload on the Department’s website.”
They said the information has since been updated on the site, and that there’s “no reason to believe the data for other school districts are incorrect.”
In the event of elevated lead levels, schools are required to remove the affected drinking fountains and provide free alternatives while notifying staff and parents.
