The Tenino School District is telling parents that its water tested above the levels deemed acceptable by the EPA.
State testing found lead in the water of 29 drinking fountains and sinks at the district’s middle school and elementary schools How much lead is coming out of which sink or water fountain is on the school’s website, and the district sent a letter to elementary and middle school parents last week, and to Parkland Elementary parents Friday to notify them about the lead.
“Scary because my kids drink that,” said Deanna Hurd, a parent to kids in 6th and 8th grades.
State testing found there’s lead coming out of 23 sinks and six water fountains at the Tenino school district, at levels of 20-parts per billion or more.
That’s a level the EPA calls “action level” for schools, or should be a concern.
The Tenino School District is one of the first schools in Washington to volunteer for the new state-funded testing program, that was approved by the state legislature in 2017.
Middle school principal, John Neal, showed KIRO sinks and faucets impacted.
But the WA Department of Health wants to make clear low levels of lead in water is not likely to cause lead poisoning.
We don’t think the water in the school is going to cause lead poisoning,” Jenks said.
The Department of Health is commending the Tenino School District, saying it’s doing everything right and encourages other districts to also get tested.

The National Association of Sachet and Packaged Water Producers has reiterated that the implementation of excise tax stamp will cause serious challenges that may cause them to stop their operations.
In an interview with Accra-based Citi FM, the President of the National Association of Sachet and Packaged Water Producers, Magnus Nunoo said that none of the members have been able to acquire the affixing stamp machines, some of which cost about 100,000 dollars.
The excise tax stamp was passed in 2013 to check revenue leakages in the beverage and water bottling industry, among others.
READ ALSO: Fuel prices to go down – IES The law was not used until the government announced its implementation tomorrow, 1st March.
Mr Nunoo said that the only alternative is for all water producers to take their products to the Tema Port where one of the machines is located for the stamps to be embossed on it.
“This is exactly what we were telling the government and they refused to listen to us.
How can all water producers transport their bottled water to the Tema Port for the stamp to be put on it?” he queried.
READ ALSO: Market women beg Nana Addo to tone down the English; they can’t understand He concluded that the development will only force the bottled water producers to stop operations from today (March 1, 2019).
“On the eve of the enforcement of the tax stamp, it was confirmed that none of the member companies of the association have been able to acquire the tax affixing machines at the moment,” Mr Nunoo said.
“It was also agreed that all bottled water companies will meet on Monday, March 5th, 2018 to assess the impact of the current situation on our companies and decide on possible shutdown if found necessary,” he added.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality says there is no timeline for making recommendations about Flint once that review is complete or what the recommendations might entail, but the reconsideration of funding for bottled water has been talked about for months by state officials.
Flint schools Superintent Bilal Tawwab issued a statement to MLive-The Flint Journal, saying the district "is eager to continue our work with the state, the mayor’s office, medical experts and Flint residents to analyze and continue water testing moving forward."
Broader Lead and Copper Rule testing has also shown city water within federal guidelines for lead for the last 18 months.
Rich Baird, senior advisor to Snyder, told Flint Schools Superintendent Bilal Tawwab in December that the state already had collected enough water data to make recommendations — even without water test data from the district.
"Given the testing that has been done at the other (non-public) schools, day care and elder care facilities, MDEQ believes there is sufficient data to move forward with recommendations in conjunction with the third 6-month round of testing under the federal (Lead and Copper Rule) when the results are available in January," Baird said in a Dec. 20 email to Tawwab.
"Until we get through (school testing) we don’t want any of this to go away.
Hiipakka asked three months ago for Tawwab’s help in setting up a flushing and testing program that could be a model for the rest of the state as soon as possible, but by the end of December, state officials said they still hadn’t been granted access to school buildings.
The district later reached a deal to allow for flushing and testing water in 13 buildings, something Mayor Karen Weaver said was necessary before discussions about the state ending support for bottled water could start.
Brown said the DEQ will consider FCS test results as well as water quality data from other schools, day care and elder care facilities, testing from across the city for the lead and copper levels, and the Confirming Lead Elimination After Replacement program, which tests homes where lead or galvanized water service lines have been replaced.
"The comprehensive data review will guide any decisions and/or recommendations to come," Brown said in an email to The Journal.

Members of the National Association of Sachet and Packaged Water Producers have threatened to shut down their production should the enforcement of the Tax Stamp Law impact negatively on their operations.
They said the current frustration was due to the fact that members had not been able to acquire the tax affixing machines as of the eve of the enforcement of the Tax Stamp law.
A statement issued by the Association’s National Executive Committee in Accra, on Wednesday, said it had been confirmed that none of their member companies had been able to acquire the tax affixing machines at the moment.
It said members were also not in the position to acquire the machines, and, therefore, resolved at an earlier meeting in the day, that producers could access the government tax affixing machine at the Tema Port, in the interim.
The statement said it was envisaged, however, that this would cause great inconveniences to producers, and could impact adversely on their productivity.
It said it was, therefore, agreed to reschedule a meeting for all bottled water companies on Monday, March 5, 2018, to assess the impact of the current situation on their businesses and decide on a possible shutdown if found necessary.

In its new report "Take Back the Tap," Food and Water Watch researchers look at the booming business of bottled water, which surpassed soda in sales in 2016.
The group finds nearly 64 percent of bottled water comes from municipal taps and that it cost almost 2,000 times as much as tap water and four times as much as gasoline.
Patty Lovera, food and water policy director with Food and Water Watch, says bottled water companies target demographics through advertising, especially immigrant communities.
"It is much more the norm in other countries where you have to go buy bottled water because the safety systems aren’t there for tap water,” says Lovera.
“That’s not the case in most American cities.
That’s pretty predatory to convince people they need to keep spending their hard earned money to do that and undermining people’s confidence in tap water."
Activists also have raised concerns that companies that do rely on groundwater are depleting people’s local water supplies and hurting the ecosystem.
In 2016, people in Cascade Locks voted to ban large bottling facilities.
"The governor weighed in and basically blocked a fairly complicated deal that would have let Nestle do a water transfer to get access to build a water facility in the Columbia River Gorge,” she says.
But she adds that it can be difficult to get support for this idea.

Before the cold, wet weather system was expected to arrive in full force tonight, forecasters billed the approaching three-day storm pattern as a beast capable of bringing up to 10 feet of snow to the highest reaches of Calaveras and Tuolumne counties by Saturday evening.
If forecasts are correct, foothill communities could see 1 foot to 1.5 feet of snow.
“We’ve sold quite a few heaters, kerosene, propane and electric,” Kurt Bartells, a floor salesman at Ace Sonora Lumber on South Washington Street, said Wednesday.
He said the approaching storm and forecasts were bringing more shoppers to the store.
“That’s why it’s so busy today,” Hampton said Wednesday.
Flashlights too.” Hampton also emphasized Safeway staff have no fear of running out of groceries or missing deliveries if snowfall blankets Sonora, because the store’s delivery truck drivers carry chains.
“We really need the snow and the water,” Cashman said.
“Probably a foot of snow on the road behind the gate and going east,” Baker said.
Caltrans personnel at other foothill and mountain maintenance yards, including Camp Connell east of Calaveras Big Trees State Park on Highway 4 and at Coulterville on Highway 49, are planning to have extra workers out on night shifts and extra plow trucks at lower elevations, said Warren Alford with Caltrans District 10 in Stockton.
People in Tuolumne County are also urged to check on neighbors who have special needs during the storm.

Water rates are rising in many California communities faster than some residents can keep up.
But it’s not just access to water that’s a problem, it’s also the cost.
Many California residents, in both small towns and big cities, are struggling to keep up with the rising price of water.
Water districts that could once rely on rain and reliable groundwater reserves no longer can.” In the small San Joaquin Valley communities of Cantua Creek and El Porvenir, hundreds of residents are paying above-average rates for water that they cannot even safely drink.
The biggest increase was for households of four that used 100 gallons per capita a day, which saw monthly water bills increase from $58.49 to $100.14.
Dodd’s proposed law, Senate Bill 998, seeks to model California’s water deliveries more like electricity and phone services, where failure to pay bills may result in soft enforcement – first warnings, followed by opportunities to appeal and probably fines.
His proposed law would prohibit service cuts for at least 60 days if a customer fails to pay a bill.
Dodd says many of the poorest Californians are paying as much as a fifth of their incomes for water.
Additionally, many people receive water from private wells or small water systems.
For important news about the California drought, you can sign up to the Water Deeply email list.

There’s something awful about every step of the bottled water process.
They encourage distrust of tap water, even though that’s essentially what they are selling us.
Read our full report here.
“Purity” and “Health” Marketing water as a health product is just…dense.
“When we’re done, tap water will be relegated to showers and washing dishes.” — Susan D. Wellington Not only are companies explicitly targeting health and weight-conscious young women, they’re also targeting parents and their children.
They’re not subtle at all: the aim is to make us pay a premium for water, which is a human right.
Actual quote: “When we’re done, tap water will be relegated to showers and washing dishes.” — Susan D. Wellington, former President of Quaker Oats Co.’s U.S. Beverage Division (later acquired by PepsiCo).
The angle is this: despite admitting that tap water is much cheaper and usually safer, corporations like Nestlé market bottled water as part of the immigrant “heritage” of coming from places with less access to clean drinking water.
They are potentially making them sick and targeting people of color and low-income communities — people who are already subjected to systematic oppression in so many other ways.
Clean, safe drinking water is a human right.

That is the reality for many families still who live in Flint.
One mother, Ariana Hawk, is still using bottled water for everything from brushing her kid’s teeth, to cooking them lunch.
She says she is not yet assured the water is safe despite improved testing results from the state.
At the time, his skin looked like it had burns on it.
Today, he has clear skin but Ariana says it comes with a lot of hard work.
That’s our max.
Long enough to get them in there, I’ll wash them up and they’re out," said Hawk.
If I don’t feel like it’s safe it’s not safe for my kids."
Rich Baird, the governor’s transformation manager, assures people in the city the tap water is safe if a faucet filter is used.
They’re not going to believe the words that are coming out of their mouth.

Almost two-thirds of bottled water in the US comes from tap water, costing the consumer 2,000 times more than tap water, according to a recent report.
The report from NGO Food and Water Watch highlights the marketing strategies used by bottled water industries when selling a product that is supposed to be purer than tap water.
Large beverage companies are now using bottled water as the main source of profit in the US and as a substitute for declining soft drink sales.
Such market strategies are designed to promote the safety of bottled water for people without access to tap water, particularly recent immigrants, the report finds.
They also include groups that mistrust tap water and communities who are concerned over obesity and the sugar levels in drinks.
In 2014, Nestle invested more than $5 million in advertising their US bottled water brand, Pure Life.
About three quarters ($3.8 million) went to Spanish-language television advertising.
“These water barons not only prey on distrust of tap water, but they also help reinforce that distrust through lobbying to enact policies to keep the bottled water profits flowing,” added Ms Hauter.
They ended up as litter, in landfill or were incinerated.
The report concluded by recommending that people choose tap water instead of bottle water and that Congress increase funding in the US`s drinking and wastewater infrastructure.