EAST LONGMEADOW – While the vast majority were within healthy levels, a handful of water sources in East Longmeadow schools were found to have lead and copper levels above the acceptable standards.

The school district recently received the results of tests taken at its schools, which was conducted with funding support from the state.

Four water sources at East Longmeadow High School tested above required action levels, four were discovered at Meadowbrook Elementary School, Mountain View had two, and one was above action levels at Birchland Park Middle School.

The level at which action must be taken for lead is 0.0015 milligrams per liter and 1.3 milligrams of copper per liter.

Necessary repairs were completed by Oct. 24 to ensure those water sources are now below required action levels.

“The first and foremost step was when I received the results on [Oct. 11], I went through all the results … made sure that our head custodian and our principal in each of our buildings new what the results were, and where specifically where these identified water taps were so that before school opened on Wednesday, Oct. 12, we had them all shut down,” Superintendent of Schools Gordon Smith told Reminder Publications. “Wednesday morning as we started the work day I met with the Department of Public Works plumber and gave him all the results and then he went out and checked all of these areas. I also worked with our facilities manager Bruce Fenney and the superintendent of the Department of Public Works [Robert Peirent].”

Smith said he sent out an automated call to all families in the district and staff members to inform them of the test results and the timeline for repairs. He also followed up with staff and parents with letters that were specific to each school.  

Overall, he said he believes the test results show that the district did “pretty well.”

Department of Public Works (DPW) workers were trained by a collaborative program of the University of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Department of Protection and the state paid for that training. Forty to 50 potable water sources were tested twice at each school – the first test was the initial water from the faucet and the second consisted of water that had been allowed to run for 30 seconds.

Smith said during tests taken after water was allowed to flow for 30 seconds, the district received levels that were under required action levels.

“That tells us it’s not in the water; it’s really not in the piping coming up to the actual fixture – it’s in the fixture,” Smith said. “So we replaced all of those.”

The total cost to replace the fixtures was about $800 to $1,000, he noted.

The district also made sure to buy new fixtures that are lead free.