Cascades Park water fountain closed for high lead levels; City waiting on further results

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) - One water fountain in Cascades Park is causing concern in the community; the City of Tallahassee shut it down for high levels of lead in the water.

The group Physicians for Social Responsibility runs a “Get the Lead Out” campaign. They discovered the issue when testing fountains around the City.

It’s currently only one fountain that has an issue; all others tested in Cascades Park came back acceptable.

Kimberly Watts was one of the graduate students who tested the water, going to Cascades Park at 5:00 a.m. and sending samples to a lab in Virginia.

Watts says ideally, the goal is zero lead in water. The action level for the EPA is 15 parts per billion; the closed fountain was at 20.6 parts per billion.

She’s hoping public drinking fountains will have filters added, and she commended the City for shutting it down.

Watts is hoping for action this legislative session.

“Right now, there’s no laws or regulation on water testing, so if there’s one water fountain that’s toxic, there’s going to be more,” said Watts. “So we need to get policy involved, we need regulation. Right now Senator Janet Cruz is trying to pass Senate bill 834 to just have a state organization test the water.”

The City of Tallahassee is aware of the issue, closing down the fountain a couple of days ago. They are currently waiting on results from additional testing.

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