Water tests to take place at Wedgwood Elementary

By Sanjay Bhatt
Seattle Times staff reporter

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Principal Patricia Flowers spelled out her concern to her staff last week: "Do not let the students fill their bottles from any water source at Wedgwood."

Since Wedgwood Elementary parents presented a bottle of sediment-laden, orange water to Superintendent Raj Manhas at a Seattle School Board meeting last month, rumors have swirled about polluted water flowing from the school's drinking fountains.

Seattle schools with galvanized pipe Built 1900-1929 Bilingual Orientation Center @ Old Hay (Alternative Ed) Magnolia (Alternative Ed) NOVA @ Mann (Alternative Ed) ORCA @ Columbia (Alternative Ed) King Elementary Laurelhurst Elementary Lowell Elementary McGilvra Elementary Montlake Elementary Van Asselt Elementary Built 1930-1949 AS#1 @ Pinehurst (Alternative Ed) Pathfinder @ Genesee Hill (Alternative Ed) Salmon Bay @ Monroe (Alternative Ed) Summit @ Addams (Alternative Ed) Arbor Heights Elementary Bagley Elementary Lafayette Elementary Loyal Heights Elementary Minor Elementary Built 1950s Roxhill Elementary Sacajawea Elementary Viewlands Elementary Wedgwood Elementary Sealth High Denny Middle Eckstein Middle Meany Middle Mercer Middle Built 1960s AE#2 @ Decatur (Alternative Ed) Broadview Elementary Fairmount Park Elementary Graham Hill Elementary Rainier View Elementary Schmitz Park Elementary Hale High Ingraham High Rainier Beach High McClure Middle Source: Seattle Public Schools

While district officials say the parents' own limited tests indicate the water is not a health hazard, the district will test samples this week with the help of Seattle Public Utilities.

The debate has brought to light unsettling truths for parents: In Washington, school officials — or any other building owners — are not legally obligated to test tap-water quality routinely to determine whether lead levels exceed toxic, "primary" standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Nor can the EPA force building owners to clean up their water if it contains unsafe levels of lead. Utilities that supply water to the buildings are required to meet the primary standards for lead, set at 15 parts per billion (ppb).

Parents worry about any lead exposure, because the metal accumulates in the body, and high lead levels can cause brain damage in children. Water in older buildings can become contaminated when corrosion of lead or galvanized pipes, soldering or brass faucets leach trace amounts of lead into the running water.

It's unusual, however, for children to get lead poisoning from drinking water, EPA officials said. Most exposures come from old paint or leaded gasoline.

In 1988, Congress amended the federal Safe Drinking Water Act to recommend schools test their water and fix the plumbing if lead levels exceed 20 ppb. The act only requires schools to notify parents and teachers.

Even if tests show no lead in the water in Seattle's public schools, the galvanized steel pipes represent a multimillion-dollar problem for the district because gradual corrosion eventually will cut off water flow and render sinks useless.

Across the nation, federal officials estimated in the mid-1990s that 23,100 schools enrolling more than 12.2 million students had less than adequate plumbing.

And in 1996, the General Accounting Office projected that schools would need to spend nearly $387 million over three years to comply with federal mandates dealing with health hazards, such as asbestos, lead in water or paint, and radon.

But Seattle may have less risk from lead in water than other areas. Unlike some other cities, such as Chicago, Seattle has no lead "service lines," the supply lines from the street into a building, and the state as a whole has very few.

Seattle in the 1980s was among the first cities to ban lead solder in household construction, and the state followed suit a few years later.

In 1990, after a parent-teacher group at Ballard High School found unsafe amounts of lead in school drinking water (including one fountain that contained 40 times more lead than the EPA considers safe), Seattle school officials tested 1,152 drinking fountains in 85 schools. They found that 384 fountains in 76 schools had more than 20 ppb of lead. District officials say all those fountains were fixed.

About 40 schools in Seattle, all built before 1970, have galvanized steel pipes that need to be replaced or repaired, said John Vacchiery, the district's director of facilities and planning. He estimates it would cost about $10 million to replace all the pipes. But the district's capital levy, which will be on the Feb. 3 ballot, doesn't include Wedgwood among the 61 schools that would have mechanical systems, including water lines, upgraded at a cost of $22.1 million over six years.

"It comes down to an issue of dollars," Vacchiery said. "We've got a lot of bad roofs we don't replace because we've got worse ones."

While "there's no question" Wedgwood's water isn't aesthetically pleasing, it's perfectly safe to drink, he said.

Manhas said students' health and safety is "a paramount concern" and that the district will address any health or safety issues identified by Seattle Public Utilities at Wedgwood. The district is not testing water at other schools.

The Kent School District recently fixed galvanized steel pipes at 16 schools using a new process that doesn't require pipe replacement, said Larry Price, director of its facilities and construction department. A contractor flushed the pipes and relined them with an epoxy. The price tag at an elementary school in Kent was $155,525.

Susan Stoltzfus, with Seattle Public Utilities, said SPU chemists will visit Wedgwood this week to take three sample sets and check for zinc, cadmium and lead. She said it could take two weeks to get results.

"We'll take standing samples, meaning the water has been standing in the pipe for at least six hours," she said. "That helps you identify what could be coming from the plumbing. Then we'll take flush samples, so we'll find out what's coming at the water main."

In the past, the district has asked staff in the 40 schools to run tap and fountain water for five minutes in the morning after weekends or long breaks to flush out any rust that has accumulated, Vacchiery said.

Parents like Geoffrey Compeau, manager of Shaw Environmental Inc.'s Seattle operations, are skeptical that actually happens consistently. His spot test of one fountain found "very elevated" levels of iron, cadmium and lead, he said, but not at levels exceeding EPA's primary standards.

He said he would like to see the district routinely monitor the water in all its schools:

"Shouldn't you at least know what the quality of drinking water is at all times in all places?"

Donna Monroe, a kindergarten teacher at Wedgwood, said about two-thirds of her students bring their own water bottles to school. The principal recently began providing bottled water for the rest of her students after parents raised concerns.

Teachers have refused to drink the water at the school for more than five years.

"I know that no adult at Wedgwood drinks the water," Flowers wrote in her Nov. 24 e-mail. Flowers, who was out sick yesterday and unavailable for comment, said in the e-mail that the school's safety committee would discuss the issue.

For years, the Wedgwood PTA has paid $1,000 annually to supply the teachers lounge with Crystal Springs water drums, said Virginia Lenker, its president. Previously, the PTA showed its appreciation for teachers by providing them free lattes, she said.

"We asked them what they would like and they said, 'water.' "

Sanjay Bhatt: 206-464-3103 or sbhatt@seattletimes.com

Times staff reporter Craig Welch contributed to this report.

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