SOUTH SHORE — Bouchet Elementary School is the latest Chicago Public School to have a faucet testing positive for high levels of lead, officials announced late Tuesday.
Two sinks tested positive at Bouchet, 7355 S. Jeffrey Ave., bringing the number of impacted schools up to 35, CPS said in a statement. The sinks has been turned off.
CPS officials said they will test all 324 schools built before 1986 by the end of the school year.
Related: 26 CPS Schools Have Lead In Their Water: What Does This Mean For Kids?
As of Tuesday, the district has tested 2,070 fixtures in 117 schools, and 73 of the fixtures, or 3.6 percent, had at least one sample with a lead level above the Environmental Protection Agency's "action level" of 15 parts per billion.
CPS officials assert that the overwhelming majority of the water lines in the schools are safe, as they have tested below the "action level."
But that level, set as a standard for remediation by the EPA's 1991 Lead and Copper Rule, is "totally arbitrary," according to Virginia Tech lead researcher Yanna Lambrinidou, and the EPA and Centers for Disease Control now say "there is no known safe level of lead" for children.
The district has been sending letters home to parents and hosting a series of community meetings, which have been extremely sparsely attended.
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