THE LOOP — A Chicago Public Schools official said Wednesday results are almost complete from the initial round of testing for lead in the water districtwide, but that CPS would not rest until no fixtures fail.
In the most recent CPS report, issued Friday, a total of 99 schools had failed tests for dangerous levels of lead in the water.
Alfonso de Hoyos y Acosta, chief administrative officer for CPS, told the Board of Education Wednesday that 324 older schools of the district's 529 total campuses had been tested by the end of last school year in June. Of those, the district had received results from 285, with 99 failing for either fountains or sinks.
Acosta maintained that just 1.4 percent of the fixtures tested had registered high lead levels, and that they were "immediately decommissioned," adding, "We also put bags over them."
According to Acosta, the district has "various remediation plans" for the fixtures, including repairs and replacement.
When CPS Chief Executive Officer Forrest Claypool announced districtwide lead testing in May, he said tests would begin with schools built before new lead-pipe regulations took effect in 1986.
Acosta said those schools had now been done, and the district would test the remaining 205 campuses with the start of the school year, concluding by the end of October. Due to those more stringent building regulations, he said, it was expected that there would be few new failing schools.
According to Acosta, most of the failing results just barely topped legal levels of lead, and were not comparable to the alarming lead levels found earlier this year in the Flint, Mich., water supply, which prompted CPS' initial lead testing.
"This doesn't mean we're resting on that," he said. "We want this to be zero."
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
