Detroit school board approves purchase of hydration stations

DETROIT (WJBK) - About $3 million for water hydration stations and related expenditures was approved Tuesday by Detroit's school board as the district deals with high levels of lead and copper in some school water fixtures.

Board members also agreed to the continued use of water coolers in all school buildings while the hydration stations are being installed. Hydration stations "will ensure there is no lead or copper in all water consumed by students and staff," according to Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.

The district plans to replace more than 800 drinking fountains with the hydration stations, which it said is a long-term solution to the contamination problem. They should be installed by the end of next summer, Vitti said.

About a week before the first day of school, authorities with the Detroit Public Schools Community District announced they had shut off the drinking water at all district schools because some testing they had done showed elevated levels of lead and/or copper. They said they had tested the drinking water at 24 schools, and 16 came back with the unfavorable results. 

Then, a few weeks later on September 19, district officials came back with more results -- 57 of the 86 schools they'd tested showed high levels of lead and/or copper. Some schools' results are still pending, but you can see a chart of which schools are affected here.

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Information from The Associated Press was used in this report