MADISON, Conn. -- Madison health officials have known about higher-than-normal levels or uranium in the water near two town schools for the past two years.

Health Director John Bowers said at a meeting between parents and school and health officials Monday night that regulations did not require any immediate notification, and that the amounts of uranium found are not harmful.

Parents were notified that uranium levels were found to be nearly three times the EPA standard at Ryerson Elementary School and Brown Middle School last week.

An anonymous source tipped off the school to the possibility of the heavy metal in the water. It was revealed at the meeting that a nearby community has tested positive for uranium in its wells for two years.

Exposure to high levels of uranium could cause kidney problems, and the dangerous element can decay into other radioactive material.

Uranium is found naturally in the Earth, but the levels at the schools were found to be higher than usual.

Parents at the meeting demanded accountability from state and local health officials, sometimes yelling out.

"Why wait those two years to let people know? I don't have a good answer to that," said Madison Health Director John Bowers. "The levels that were found in the school here should not result in any adverse health effects," said Bowers.

For now, only bottled water is being used to drink and cook with at the schools.

"All the water fountains are shut because they think that bad metal thingy is getting into the water," said 8-year-old student Anthony Calia.

Ron Rubel stopped using water out of his tap two years ago. He said everything now comes from bottled water.

“We don't want, we have grandchildren who visit, just wanted to be safe," he said.

His condo association has been printing the high levels of uranium in the quarterly newsletter, he said. At a town meeting Monday night, he said he was shocked to hear that two nearby schools had no clue about the water.

“Had we not gone, the town wouldn't have known because the town Health Department knew about it but didn't tell anyone," Rubel said.

Dozens of residents at the meeting were furious when they found out their children were drinking contaminated water, even though the town's public health director received a letter about it in 2006.

State health officials said there’s no clear rule requiring towns to make immediate notifications about contaminates like uranium.

One health advocacy group said that needs to change.

Two options for getting rid of the uranium were mentioned at Monday's meeting: Shutting down the tainted wells and building new ones or using a process called reverse osmosis to remove the uranium.

The health department recommended that nearby neighbors get their wells tested.