What to Know
- NYC Parks started testing all of its 3,500+ water fountains Monday for the first time ever as part of Mayor de Blasio’s LeadFreeNYC.
- There has been no previous evidence of lead in city park water fountains, but this program aims to “ensure no stone is left unturned.”
- The testing is expected to take seven weeks in total and started in Queens.
NYC Parks started testing all of its 3,500+ water fountains Monday for the first time ever, as part of Mayor de Blasio’s LeadFreeNYC initiative.
The testing is expected to take seven weeks in total and started in Queens. There has been no previous evidence of lead in city park water fountains, but this program aims to “ensure no stone is left unturned.”
“The health and welfare of our City’s children is of the utmost importance,” said NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver in a statement. “The Mayor’s LeadFreeNYC program ensures that our children are safe whether they are at home, at school, or in our parks; and we are doing our part by testing all of our drinking fountains and putting a plan in place for annual testing, so that our water remains safe.”
The annual testing after this spring will consist of quality control tests on 20 percent of the fountains.
Following reports of lead in school water fountains in Newark last year, NBC New York's I-Team conducted a similar test with Newark park fountains. Only one produced traces of lead, not enough to cause adverse effects, but two-thirds of them did not work at all.
