The Sequim School District plans to replace every sink fixture in Greywolf Elementary School and two at Helen Haller Elementary School following its voluntary testing in May for lead in its water fixtures.

School officials made the announcement at a forum on June 2 at Sequim Middle School where about a dozen parents/citizens were on-hand along with officials from the City of Sequim, Clallam County Department of Health, State Department of Health, Clallam County PUD and the school district.

Brian Lewis, director of business operations for Sequim schools, said the estimate for replacing the fixtures at Greywolf’s 51 fixtures and Helen Haller’s two fixtures costs about $8,000, including the equipment and labor.

He said at the Sequim School District School board meeting on June 6 the district received a quote for replacing the bad fixtures and will replace them during the summer break.

Sequim schools superintendent Gary Neal directed school staff to begin testing on May 4, which began on May 13 following news multiple news reports of lead in drinking supplies, including in Flint, Mich.

On May 26, the school district notified parents that eight fixtures at Greywolf Elementary and two at Helen Haller Elementary were identified to be above the state recommended threshold for lead in the water.

After learning of the affected fixtures, school staff disabled the sinks.

Those include one sink in Greywolf’s gymnasium storage closet, library office, staff workroom, in Chris Stevens’ second-grade classroom, Gretta Rich’s second-grade classroom, Alexandra Ogilvie’s first-grade classroom, Monique Brasher’s first-grade classroom and Krista Chatters’ Wolf Den (reading) room.

At Helen Haller, one sink in the second-grade yellow pod hallway  and the fifth-grade orange pod hallway were found with excess lead in the fixtures.

No drinking fountains were found to have water lead levels above the unsafe threshold, school officials said.

Lewis said the district planned to replace fixtures above the allowable threshold and those of the same type and age. Greywolf’s fixtures were all installed in 1992.

School officials are awaiting a second set of sample results from the affected 10 fixtures within the next two weeks.

Kay Rottell, regional engineer for the state’s southwest region drinking water regional operations, said the first test sampled water that’s sitting in the fixture while the second sample lets water run for about 30 seconds before sampling to test the pipes bringing water into the school.

“The remedial action is replacing the fixture because that’s what you target through sampling,” Rottell said.

Impact

The threshold for exceeding allowable lead levels by the state is 0.02 or 20 parts per billion, the school district reports.

The affected fixtures range from 0.023 to 0.048 or 23 parts per billion to 48 parts per billion.

Eight more classrooms between the schools came near or met the maximum threshold at 20 parts per billion with those fixtures ranging from 16 parts to 20 parts per billion.

Dr. Christopher Frank, health officer for Clallam County Health Department, said the threshold is conservative and there’s no mathematical formula for how much lead in water is going to affect people.

“It still has a lot of variables,” Frank said.

Those variables, Frank said, could range from how much water students drink from an affected fixture to how long the water sits in the pipes to the size of the child to what they eat to where they live.

“It’s a question that’s going to come up over and over again,” he said.

If parents are concerned about possible exposure, Frank and Sequim Schools’ nurse Sonja Bittner recommend children see their physician.

“There are a number of options for lead testing,” Frank said.

People who want to minimize lead exposure, Frank said, should be careful around lead-based paints and dust.

“Those are the main reasons for exposure now,” he said. “There is a lot of lead out in the environment, but water is one of the sources we worry about the least.”

Clallam County hasn’t reported significant lead levels in children, Frank said.

“That being said, we do know there is lead out there, we just haven’t seen it be a problem in our county … our goal is to minimize the level of exposure across the board,” he said. “There’s probably never going to be a time when lead exposure is zero.”

Beth Schwartz, a Portland, Ore., transplant and a Multipure Drinking Water System distributor, asked why the district wouldn’t install filters to keep out lead and other contaminates.

Rottell said doing that comes with many more requirements.

“If schools begin treating, then the schools themselves become public water suppliers so they become a public water system.”

Jester Purtteman, also a regional engineer for drinking water, said it’s “generally better to do a systematic and generally centralized treatment than an endpoint treatment because you end up with a lot of maintenance.”

Up next

Lewis said replacing the schools’ fixtures is an unplanned cost, but if there’s a “health and safety issue, we’re going to respond to it.”

So far, water testing has cost about $600 at the two schools, he said.

At the school board meeting, Lewis said the district kitchen is the next priority “because it has the potential to contact every student.”

Following those tests, the district will test Olympic Peninsula Academy, Sequim Middle School and Sequim High School.

“If fixtures test above threshold, they’ll be shut down and eventually replaced,” Lewis said.

Sequim School staff will order replacement faucets when results from the second set of water samples is received tentatively by mid-June, Lewis said.

Of the small group of attendees, Jim Peck, a semi-retired environmental and health worker, said he felt the level of concern is likely minimal.

“It’s good they had this,” Peck said of the forum.

Parent Josh Riley said he attended because he had a lot of concerns for his child.

“So far I’m happy with how they handled it,” he said. “I look forward to seeing the results.”

School board directors Robin Henrickson and Michael Howe both attended the forum with Henrickson saying at the school board meeting she was disappointed more parents weren’t there to hear it.

“I thought the information was great,” Howe said at the district’s board of directors meeting on June 6.

“I encourage us to maintain the transparency with that (issue).”

For more information on the studies, visit www.sequim.k12.wa.us or contact Patsene Dashiell at 582-3264 or mdashiell@sequim.k12.wa.us.

Reach Matthew Nash at mnash@sequimgazette.com.