HOBOKEN – While Hoboken has stayed out of the spotlight amid school districts nationwide dealing with high lead levels in their drinking water, the district says their playing it extra safe and testing water for lead.
Superintendent Christine Johnson said this week that while no issues have arisen in the school’s typical method of monitoring water lead levels – relying on SUEZ water’s annual report – the district aims to be proactive.
Tom Kluepfel, president of the Hoboken Board of Education, said testing “is only prudent” in a release3 from Hoboken’s superintendent to parents on Wednesday, March 30.
“The district will not wait for New Jersey’s mandate and will begin precautionary testing at the end of this week and throughout next week,” Johnson said, noting later to the Reporter that she is not sure when exactly results will be in.
In the letter released to parents yesterday, Johnson cited issues faced in Newark and Flint, Michigan.
In Newark, parents and students alike have been grappling with high-levels of lead discovered at 30 schools, equating to 17,000 students. As for Flint, lead contamination in the roughly 100,000-person city came to light in April 2014 when the city changed its water source. Media reports place the number of children exposed to high lead levels between 6,000 and 12,000.
For more on this issue, see this weekend’s Hoboken Reporter. – Steven Rodas
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