Around half of Newton’s park and playground bubblers are delivering water contaminated with relatively high levels of lead, as are nearly a dozen water fountains in municipal buildings and recreation facilities, test results released by the city Monday show, the TAB’s Jonathan Dame reports
More lead found in municipal water fountains
by village14 | Aug 23, 2016 | Newton | 2 comments
Does anyone here know whether Mayor Warren has plans to work with the Newton Housing Authority to test the water at our public housing units? Similarly to Flint, we have a particularly vulnerable population of children and elderly individuals living in these units who are especially likely to rely on our local government to ensure that their faucet water is safe.
For months now, I’ve been attempting to work with the Administration and NHA to do just this, but the response has been the opposite of helpful. In fact, shortly after I reached out about the City helping test the water at our public housing, Setti Warren went as far as shutting down Newton’s free water testing program.
This is one area where poor leadership will not be tolerated.
One very practical approach is to advise people to run the water for a few seconds if the tap hasn’t been used recently. These high tests are often the “first drop from the tap after sitting unused” worst case situations. So if you just run the tap for a bit you typically avoid that high dose created when the water sits in the pipe. Ironically, water conservation (low flow fixtures) can lead to increased dwell times and poor water quality.
Also for buildings with sprinkler systems there is a lot of stagnant water and you can also have microbial growth issues as well., which is another reason to run the tap before drinking.