Water Turned Off At 8 More Newark Schools After Testing Shows Elevated Lead Levels

NEWARK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- The City of Newark has turned off the taps at eight more school buildings after new tests showed elevated levels of lead in the water.

As CBS2's Janelle Burrell reported, frustration among Newark parents has reached its boiling point with the latest news.

"It doesn't make any sense to me," said Newark parent Michael Wright.

They want to know how long officials have known lead was in the water, and how long their children were exposed.

"I think it's crazy for the kids to go through that," said parent Ruth Frenponng. "Because you know, some kids, they don't carry bottled water. They depend on the schools."

The latest testing took 324 water samples, a sample from every single water source, in all eight non-traditional facilities within the Newark Public School District for this phase of testing.

A quarter of the samples came back with elevated levels of lead.

Seventeen of them were from drinking water sources and 10 of those drinking water sources were from the building that houses the Newark Legacy Charter School.

The Environmental Protection Agency's acceptable level of lead in water is 15 parts per billion. In some of the samples from water fountains, the lead levels were more than 10 times that, CBS2's Burrell reported.

The Newark Legacy Charter School had already taken preemptive action when news broke last month that other facilities had high lead levels.

"We immediately turned off all of our water sources and switched to bottles at that time," chief operating officer Annette Riffle said. "We contracted out own environmental expert to come out and test the water."

Riffle said the independent testing revealed that the water was safe. The school is now retesting, but has an overhaul under way.

"A high-end water filtration system with reverse osmosis, so we're in the process of installing that now," she said.

One parent, Shiana Torres, said the school is doing all it can.

"They did a very good job, they got bottled water to our kids, they were very proactive in making our children are safe. I do not want the school to get a bad rap, it is the government, it is the city," Torres said.

Last month, the school district began offering free blood tests to 17,000 students who attend class in the initial 30 schools that had elevated lead results. So far only 300 have used the free service, Burrell reported.

"We're not forcing people to get lead testing, so we don't know how many parents are gonna come forward and say this is what they want to do," Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said last month.

Torres said she doesn't trust the city to test her children.

"I will not take my children to the same people that caused the problem that would be ridiculous," she said. "My children will be tested by private doctors."

The mayor says the water supply is fine, but old pipes in the aging buildings are to blame for the spike in lead levels.

Younger children are most at risk.

For more information from the city, click here.

Newark public school officials say they'll be providing weekly updates on water testing and will also release lead test results dating back to 2012 in an effort to be transparent.