Drinking water at most Oakland schools now meets safety thresholds, officials say

Oakland Unified School District officials said yesterday that they are making major strides in lead remediation efforts at the city’s public schools, more than a year after The Oaklandside broke the story that lead-contaminated water had been discovered at dozens of them.

Drinking water sources at 70 of OUSD’s 76 school sites are now testing below the district’s standard of 5 parts per billion, staff said Thursday. Over the summer, OUSD reported that it completed testing of all school water fountains, filtered water stations, and kitchen sinks, collecting 6,781 samples. All but eight of the district’s kitchen sinks are now functional and testing below the threshold for repair, said Nilufar Abdul, OUSD’s assistant project manager for systems and services.

“We’re making consistent and meas