OAKLAND — The Oakland Unified school board adopted a new policy Wednesday to address high lead levels in water taps at its schools.
Board members voted unanimously to adopt the “Clean Drinking Water Policy,” which requires the district to test all of its schools and early childhood centers for “potential contaminants, including lead,” according to the policy, post the results of the tests publicly and replace or fix taps that contain lead levels higher than five parts per billion — which is below the state and federal guideline deeming lead levels higher than 15 parts per billion as dangerous.
If taps are found to contain more than five parts per billion of lead, the school must close access to the tap within 24 hours until the issue is fixed, the policy said.
The school will also have to test all other fixtures at a site where a tap with more than five parts per billion of lead is found.
If a tap is found to contain more than five parts per billion of lead, the superintendent must notify teachers, parents and faculty within one business day.
By 2019, the board will review the policy to consider testing taps for anything above one part per billion.