Schools

Next Step Taken in Brick School Water Remediation

Fixtures will be replaced before next rounds of testing

Brick school officials are continuing to narrow down the source of elevated levels of lead in school water systems.

District officials recently received a report from an environmental testing firm which was required after an earlier round of mandated testing revealed the presence of lead in the water at five township schools.

Superintendent Dr. Walter Uszenski said Wednesday that two specific locations of lead in the second round of testing were determined to be two water fountains at Brick Township High School and two water fountains at Lake Riviera Middle School.

Find out what's happening in Brickwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Those water fountains have since been replaced, and a third round of testing has been completed which, when the results come in, will determine whether the source of the lead are the fixtures themselves or piping deeper in the system, said Uszenski.

Replacing fixtures would be significantly less expensive than replacing the entire water delivery systems in schools, officials have said.

Find out what's happening in Brickwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"One of the things they've been saying is that it could be the fixtures," said Uszenski, of experts consulted.

The district has spoken with representatives from the environmental firm and multiple public agencies on the matter.

Uszenski said the environmental testing firm hired to complete the tests, Garden State Environmental, has been asked by officials to expedite the finding of the results.

The latest round of testing on the new fixtures has included samples taken at multiple times of day, including after water has been sitting in the system and when water has been actively flowing through the system.

"We don't want to take any chances since this is the safety of our students and teachers," said Uszenski.

Regardless of the cause, all water systems will have to be cleared in a final round of testing before students and staff can access it again.

Though water use has been restricted since December, when the initial test results came in, officials at the time said that while the lead levels were elevated, they did not rise to the level of an immediate health risk.

The schools affected are:

  • Drum Point Elementary School
  • Brick Township High School
  • Emma Havens Young Elementary School
  • Lake Riviera Middle School
  • Osbornville Elementary School


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here