Two seldom-used water sources in two separate buildings in Camas School District have been found to contain elevated levels of lead, the district reported Friday.
The test results, received Friday, found lead content above the Washington State Department of Health’s trigger level for lead in a drinking fountain in Room 3 at Dorothy Fox Elementary School and a sink in the Zellerbach Administration Center. A district press release said both water sources were infrequently used.
The state’s allowable amount of lead is 0.015 parts per million. The news release did not say what level of lead was detected from the two sources. Efforts to reach a district spokesperson were unsuccessful Friday afternoon.
The school district recently performed 61 water tests for lead at four schools built before 2000: Dorothy Fox, Lacamas Heights Elementary School, Liberty Middle School and Skyridge Middle School. The administration center, which houses the community education preschools and before- and after-school care, and the district’s transition house were also tested.
The results were released to families in the school district Friday.
Clark County school districts have been in the process of testing drinking water for elevated lead content after several Tacoma schools reported high lead content in school water last month. The testing also comes after alarming lead levels were reported in the city water supply in Flint, Mich., earlier this year.
Camas School District delivered the water samples to the lab May 20.
The district’s operation staff has disconnected the water at both sources and in four additional, less frequently used water fountains at Dorothy Fox, in Rooms 9, 11, 12 and 19. Bottled water will be available to students Tuesday when they return from the holiday weekend.
School officials say they suspect the source of lead is the fittings in the drinking fountains, which are original to the buildings. Dorothy Fox Elementary and the Zellerbach Administration Center were built in the early 1980s and 1970s, respectively. Lead wasn’t banned from plumbing materials until 1986.
Operation staff will now test all of the water sources in Dorothy Fox Elementary. The results will likely come back toward the end of the school year.
All of the drinking fountains at the elementary school will be replaced over the summer, and the water will be tested to ensure the issue has been corrected.
“We understand parents and staff are concerned about the potential health impacts of lead in drinking water. In checking with our local and state health departments, we’ve learned that lead exposure risks from drinking water are generally low,” according to a written statement from the district. “In fact, it’s highly unlikely to have drinking water as the only potential source of exposure to lead if a child or adult has an elevated blood lead level.”
People can experience lead exposure from several different sources, including lead-based paint, soil and the air.
