By: Kirk Tran
Does MUSD provide safe, lead-free drinking water at its water fountains? Should students of our district fear the many adverse effects of lead-contaminated drinking water? The truth is that nobody knows yet. MUSD has yet to provide water testing results, according to the government-owned website waterboards.ca.gov.
MUSD is currently awaiting results on lead results from water samples taken through March and July, MUSD Director of Maintenance, Operations, and Transportation Brian Shreve said. The samples have been submitted to the City of Milpitas for testing and MUSD will better understand whether action is necessary based on those tests, with the purpose of MUSD to sample all its drinking fountains, Shreve also said.
“[The water tests] have been taken throughout, probably, I want to say, through March to July,” Shreve said. “We’re testing our drinking fountains throughout the district. The intent is for us to sample every drinking fountain.”
The results of the water tests have yet to be uploaded because of the volume of other California schools attempting to test their water as well, Shreve said. Those results will be released in mid-November, Shreve said on Oct. 4.
“It takes time. We’re one of many school districts, so the sampling lab, the testing labs, are taking longer with results to get back than it would normally be because of the thousands that are getting done, but we’re in line to get the final results.” Shreve said. “We’re as hopeful as anybody else. We would hope in the next month to six weeks, [that the sample results will come back] but that’s not guaranteed. But we should, hopefully around that time frame.”
Schools constructed without water systems built after Jan. 1, 2010 must test their drinking water for lead by Jan. 1, 2019, according to California Assembly Bill 746. That bill requires that, if the lead level of any drinking fountain’s water exceeds 15 parts per billion, the school district overseeing that school notify parents of the matter, shut down any such drinking fountain immediately, and work to provide potable drinking sources.