Valley Stream schools work to rid water supplies of lead

When some Valley Stream schools voluntarily tested their water supplies last year, they replaced or fixed any supplies that contained more than 20 parts per billion of lead per Environmental Protection Agency standards. Since Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill on Sept. 6, however, schools must retest water every five years for more than 15 ppb of lead.

Now, Valley Stream schools are working to rid their water of lead, which could cause anemia and impair hearing. According to the new law, these schools must stop using any water outlet that contains more than 15 ppb of lead and implement a remediation plan.

To comply with the law, affected water sources were marked with signs that read “water not for drinking” in District 13. Tests from October showed that the district had 53 contaminated water supplies — 46 of which were at Wheeler Avenue Elementary School. In May, four water fountains had to be replaced at Wheeler Avenue after tests showed high concentrations of lead.

According to District 13 Superintendent Constance Evelyn, the fixtures that have not been replaced are due to be swapped out when students are off in February. Over the summer, four sinks at Wheeler Avenue would be completely renovated. The signs will remain up until these adjustments are made and the water contains less than 15 ppb of lead.

District 24 is also using signs to prevent students from drinking contaminated water until it can properly replace the faucet heads on the fewer 15 to 20 sinks that contained more than 15 ppb of lead. Any materials installed before 1986 may contain lead, but even newer faucet heads built in China can contain trace amounts.

“We’re going under the assumption that the water coming into our buildings are okay, so the problems have to come from the faucet heads,” said Superintendent Edward Fale, who also recommends that parents test their water.

District 30 did not put up signs to warn students not to drink the water. Instead, it replaced the affected fixtures and is now waiting for Ronkonkoma-based Enviroscience Consultants Inc. to return to the schools and retest the water. Christopher Dillon, the assistant superintendant for business, believes the retest is likely to occur this week.

“As an elementary district, we felt that it was more proactive with the ages of the students to just replace all of the fixtures,” said Dillon.

The Central High School District was the only district in Valley Stream that did not have to make further changes under the new law. When the district tested the water in March, it found that only five water supplies were affected: one in Central High School, two in South High School and two in Memorial Junior High School. These five water fountains were immediately replaced, according to Superintendent Bill Heidenreich.

“Problems found, problems solved,” he said.

The water may not be as clean as Heidenreich hopes, however. A recent EPA study shows that 1,4-dioxane, a possible carcinogen, was found at more than 71 percent of Long Island water districts.

The chemical, which is prevalent in personal care products and laundry detergents, may have been discharged into the groundwater at laundromats. In Suffolk County, three laundromats’ discharge showed that several thousand gallons of the chemical were discharged into the water each day. On Jan. 18, New York State Senator Todd Kaminsky sponsored legislation that would further test discharge in Nassau County and regulate the chemical.

“When we find out that the water we take for granted every day contains chemicals that may cause cancer, we must act without hesitation,” Kaminsky said in a statement.

Earlier in January, Newsday and News 12 reported their own story on the EPA’s report, citing dioxane was detected at or above .35 micrograms per liter in the water provided by numerous south shore water suppliers in Nassau County, including New York American Water, and the water districts in Levittown, Franklin Square, East Meadow, Hempstead and West Hempstead, and throughout Long Island. However, multiple tests were done from 2013-14 — a total of 28,092 tests — showing that the chemical was often below the .35 micrograms per liter guideline.

According to the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, it is difficult to prevent dioxane from reaching Long Island’s groundwater because its sewage and septic systems are not designed to filter out the contaminant. “Now that we know we have it, how do we get rid of it?” said Adrienne Esposito, president of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment.

In a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo sent last year, Esposito stated that the chemical is an unwanted byproduct of processing method called ethoxylation, which is used to reduce the risk of skin irritation for petroleum-based ingredients. “About 46 percent of personal care products contain dioxane,” Esposito said. “It’s in detergents, dishwashing soaps, shampoos, cosmetics, deodorants and body lotions.” Even baby wipes and baby shampoos contain the chemical, which is a stabilizer for manufacturing solvents.

Of the 4,400 water supply systems tested by the EPA nationwide from 2013-14, Long Island’s water systems were among those with the highest levels of dioxane detection in the country. The Citizens Campaign for the Environment wants the state government to enforce a law where dioxane cannot exceed the EPA’s cancer risk guideline for any chemical. The organization said it will release an extensive report containing the EPA’s test results next month.