MNPS Testing Procedures May Have Masked Water Contamination
Nashville school officials may have covered up problems with the district’s drinking water, using a testing protocol that masks the real level of lead contamination, a NewsChannel 5 investigation has discovered.
Test results from a water sample brought to NewsChannel 5 Investigates by a Metro Schools insider suggests the contamination issues could be far greater than district officials have been willing to admit.
The whistleblower, a plumber in the school system’s maintenance department, said it’s because Metro Schools has engaged in a controversial practice that essentially washes away the evidence.
“It’s not right,” said plumber Joey Combs. “I mean, at the end of the day, it’s not right to put kids lives on the line.”
That sample came from East Nashville Middle Magnet School, formerly known as Bailey Middle School. Built in 1929, it’s one of Nashville’s oldest school buildings and is now home to some 800 students, according to district records.
Over the past year, school officials have assured parents that the water there, and in every other school, is completely safe to drink.
But Combs said he decided to collect the sample after seeing the greenish water coming from a third-floor fountain.
Inside a plastic bottle, he showed us water with debris sitting at the bottom.
“It’s settled some. You can see the crud there, but if you shake it just a little,” Combs said, jiggling the bottle as the water turned green.
“That’s the color that it came out. If a student had just come in from playing outside and decided, hey, I want a drink of water and ran up to the fountain, that’s what they are going to be a mouthful of.”
A closer look revealed chunks of sediment floating through the water.
“I did 10 years in the Army, two tours overseas, and I wouldn’t have fed Saddam Hussein this water,” the Metro Schools plumber said. “So the last thing I want is a child drinking that.”
NewsChannel 5 Investigates sent the sample to an accredited lab to be tested.