The Greater Essex County District School Board is testing about 700 water taps and fountains at its schools across Windsor-Essex, but officials say there's no cause for alarm.
Kathy Quenneville, the board's energy and environmental officer, says the annual testing is mandated by the province, but this year it found a fountain at Marlborough Public School in West Windsor exceeding standard lead levels in the drinking water samples.
Quenneville says sampling results for the Marlborough fountain should come back by the end of this week or early next week, but the other water testing continues until the end of June.
She says that one fountain is out of commission, but the other fountains continue to be used by the students.
At Prince Edward Public School, four water fountains are out of commission.
Quenneville says frequent flushing of the plumbing for a longer period of time will often help to reduce the lead in drinking water to below the provincial drinking water quality standard for lead.