By Kathleen Moore
Albany Times Union

ALBANY — Some school districts around the region have faced a deeply perplexing problem this year: Their drinking water in many classrooms and even kitchens has lead in it — but their main water pipes were installed long after lead pipes were banned.

The unexpected culprit: faucets.

Those spigots, or “brass fittings,” as plumbers call them, have lead in them. Water can corrode the faucet or the flexible line leading to it, eating away at the coating on the pipe, and lead can leach into the drinking water.

In the Capital Region, 27 districts in Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer and Saratoga counties detected lead in school drinking water in the last four years, according to an analysis of state Health Department data obtained by the Times Union.

The news that there was still lead in supposedly “lead-free” pipes came as a surprise to many local school leaders.

“Contractors suggested replacing the faucet,” said Corinth Superintendent Mark Stratton after water tests this year found lead in samples from 22 of the school district’s drinking water sources.

It seemed like almost too simple of a solution in a terrifying situation. Lead is poisonous and is now considered unsafe at any level. It is particularly unsafe for children, because lead can cause developmental delays, learning and behavior problems, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Lead was found in water in some “critical areas” like the kitchen sinks and a sink outside the high school nurse’s office, Stratton said. He called in the experts.

In the meantime, as all schools are required to do, officials posted signs saying not to use the water. The kitchens and nurse’s station switched to bottled water.

“If this doesn’t work, we’ll have to take more invasive steps,” Stratton said after the faucets were replaced this past fall.

But it did work — in all but one of 22 faucets, the drinking water tested clean in December. One faucet required an additional water filter.

More schools in New York are discovering lead in their water now because the standards were lowered in 2022. Now, if there are 5 parts per billion of lead in the water sample, the district must take action. Previously, water passed if the lead level was below 15 ppb.

School districts also have to test every three years now, instead of every five years, due to a new state law. And no district can be exempt by being a “lead free” school, a designation previously allowed for schools built after 2014.

One of the reasons for losing the exemption: the definition of lead-free pipes and brass fittings.

In South Colonie, workers became aware of lead in faucet pipes eight years ago.

That’s when those pipes “were identified as the source of elevated lead levels during tests” said spokeswoman Kara Granato. “Since then, we’ve seen more plumbing parts explicitly labeled as ‘No Lead Containing Parts,’ and we prioritize sourcing materials that meet these standards to ensure safety.”

So, when seven faucets each at the Lishakill and Sand Creek middle schools failed a lead water test in 2023, they replaced the faucets. It worked.

“We have no lead pipes. The issue we encountered was with plumbing parts that, unbeknownst to us, may have contained lead components. These parts were identified when we conducted testing,” Granato said. “Once we discovered that the items had failed the tests, we promptly replaced the affected components, as confirmed by our follow-up testing.”

Congress has been fighting lead in drinking water for decades. In 1986, Congress banned lead pipes and solder (used for joining less fusible metals) in drinking water systems. But the legal definition of “lead-free” pipes was that the pipe could not be more than 8% lead.

In 1996, Congress added faucets and other fixtures to the list of public water pipes that had to be lead-free.

In 2011, Congress changed the definition of lead-free to mean no more than 0.25% lead. 

Now, many schools are replacing those 8% lead faucets with the new 0.25% faucets.

Still, for many people, learning that “lead-free” pipes had any lead at all in them was a surprise.

The state Department of Health has had to explain that schools must still check the water even after they replaced faucets in response to a failed lead test. Districts must also notify the families of all students at a school with a failed test.

“Many outlets have been remediated by replacing the fixtures. However, replacing an outlet, even with something labeled ‘lead-free’ may not remediate the problem. The department requires post-remediation sampling to ensure that lead levels are below 5ppb before the outlet is placed back in service,” state Health Deputy Communications Director Erin Clary said.