High-tech water fountain can’t be used at Brooklyn school due to lead problems
City officials last Tuesday brought fresh water and a repair plan for a high-tech water fountain at a Brooklyn high school that cost $5,100. The bubbler has sat unused since June because of dangerous lead levels.
Last school year, students at the International High School in Prospect Heights raised money for the new fountain by selling popcorn, but tests found lead contamination in the water, according to the New York Post.
Last Tuesday, two days after a story in the Post, Department of Education officials arrived with 5-gallon jugs of fresh water and a water dispenser for temporary relief and began removing “particulate matter” in the soldering that links the 95-year-old building’s pipes to the futuristic fountain, the Post reported. The water quality will then be tested again. “Educational bureaucrats converged on our school,” said math teacher Steve Watson, who helped the kids raise funds for the HydroBoost fountain-cooler unit last year.
