PORTLAND, Ore. — Starting Wednesday, students at 15 schools can safely drink from the water fountains again.
Maintenance teams have been working overtime, yanking out and replacing the fixtures in drinking fountains.
Data the district collected suggest most of the lead problems were in the actual fixtures.
In some cases, parts of piping has been replaced, too.
The schools include Astor, Lewis, Woodstock, Chapman, Skyline, West Sylvan, Atkinson, Richmond, Rose City Park, Sacajawea, Beverly Cleary/Fernwood, Applegate, Chief Joseph, Meek, and Hayhurst.
PPS shut down all drinking fountains in May of 2016, after finding high lead levels in a number of schools.
It caused panic across the district and lead to the resignation and firing of some top school leaders.
Since the final week of school in May of 2016, students have been drinking bottled water.
It costs the district $800,000 a year to provide that water, of course you have to, students and staff have to have access to safe drinking water but obviously it’s much more preferable to have those water fixtures working," said Northfield.
It’s a $28 million project and is being funded through the massive school bond that passed in May 2017.