After the discovery of lead contamination in drinking fountains at four of the Goleta Union School District’s campuses, additional testing has been ordered, and filtered-water hydration stations are being installed.
Last spring, the district began conducting voluntary water testing at Ellwood, Foothill, Hollister, Mountain View, and Kellogg elementary schools, said Conrad Tedeschi, the district’s assistant superintendent of fiscal services.
The results showed levels of lead the over the federally recommended maximum of 15 parts per billion at Foothill (two taps), Hollister (three taps) and Mountain View (two taps), prompting district staff to shut down the drinking facets and replace the old water fountains with filtered water at new hydration stations.
“When we get the results back, and if anything is exceeding the (federal) level, we remove it right way,” Tedeschi said.
“We took a good sample of the water at different parts of the campus," Tedeschi said.
“Water was sampled from different geographic locations on the campus to get a good feel.” School district staff is conducting the latest testing only on the drinking fountains, Tedeschi said.
“We are now going to the other sites — we will continue until we have every drinking fountain in the district tested,” Tedeschi said.
District administrators ordered and received 24 filtered-water stations, and will be installing them across all of the schools, even those that show negative results for lead, Lewis said.
Lewis said the goal is to have all water stations installed by January.
The water testing results will be posted on the district’s website.