Lead in water at Schenectady High School caused by faucets

by Zachary Matson, originally posted on December 25, 2016

It could take until the end of the summer to fix all of the drinking fountains and other water sources shut down because of lead contamination in Schenectady city schools, Superintendent Larry Spring said last week.

In test results last month, over 40 percent of the water sources in Schenectady High School registered lead levels higher than the federal action limit — 15 parts per billion — and have been shut off and sealed. Earlier this fall, a smaller share of the district’s elementary school water sources was also closed down.

The water sources, which are being tested under a new state law that requires all districts to test water for lead contamination, are being fixed and will need to be retested.

As the district replaces old faucet fixtures with new ones, it will retest large batches of the repaired water sources. If the sources pass those tests, they can be opened again for student and staff use. None of the sealed water sources have been retested yet, Spring said.

“What we don’t want to do, we don’t want to bring anything really back online until it is tested again,” Spring said.

Spring said it appeared that the lead contamination was caused by old faucets or the solder used to weld parts together and not more significant problems with underlying plumbing systems.

At the high school, 90 water sources last month tested above the action limit. The lead levels in those fountains ranged from just over the 15 parts per billion limit to many times over that level. Over 20 classroom sinks exceed 100 parts per billion in the tests; four sinks exceed 300 parts per billion.

In the district’s elementary schools, just 10 sources tested at or above the 15 parts per billion level. But the district took the extra step of closing down and repairing another 55 sinks and fountains with lead levels higher than 5 parts per billion.
While no amount of lead is healthy, especially for young children, it is unlikely exposure to lead-contaminated water sources at school will cause major health problems for students, health experts said when the first round of test results were released.

“I don’t think parents should panic,” Carrin Schottler, a pediatrician and the medical director of the regional lead resource center and Albany Medical Center, said at the time. “It’s very rare that a child can be poisoned by lead in the water alone.”

The greater risk of lead poisoning comes from lead paint exposure, and children may be exposed to lead in the water at their homes as well, especially in older homes. In fact, as a group, today’s children are exposed to far less lead in and out of school than their parents and older generations were.

The number of children 5 and younger with blood-lead concentrations at levels that spark home visits by many state health agencies — 10 micrograms per deciliter or higher — have fallen from 13.5 million children in 1978 to just 250,000 children in 2008, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The state promises to reimburse districts for the cost of testing and fixing faucets that test above the action limit, but Schenectady district officials still have to reallocate maintenance dollars and staff to lead work. And students have to get water from a smaller number of fountains. At the high school, the district is not providing water bottles, Spring said.
“We are making do with the existing stuff that is testing fine,” Spring said.