Epoxy touted to keep lead out of school drinking water

By Sanjay Bhatt
Seattle Times staff reporter

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District testing had showed that in most cases water in the schools didn't have toxic lead levels, although parents had complained that the water was rust-colored and tasted awful.

"In most cases the water didn't pose a safety hazard," recalled Fred High, assistant superintendent for business. "It was an iron-content situation."

Kent's strategy for fixing its plumbing has become a model for other school districts, such as Lake Washington and Renton, that also are dealing with corroded pipes and dirty water. But many cash-strapped school districts around the nation, including Seattle Public Schools, have not relined their water pipes with epoxy coating, even though tax dollars brought this technology to the United States market.

The process involves blowing compressed air through a building's pipes to dry their surfaces, then sandblasting them with grit and pumping a liquid epoxy through the system to coat all surfaces.

Once the epoxy hardens, there essentially is a new pipe inside the old metal pipe that prevents water from coming into contact with the metal surface. Over time, water can erode metal and can become contaminated with harmful metal particles like lead and cadmium. The epoxy pipe won't corrode, experts say.

Seattle Public Schools, which has been trying to correct excessive lead levels, has decided not to pursue epoxy relining, said Ron English, the district's water-quality program manager.

Instead, district officials plan to present a plan tomorrow that would involve spending millions to replace corroded pipes and lead-leaching fountains at some schools and to use iron-extracting filters at others.

"I think there is a concern of what chemicals are in that epoxy and what the long-term health effects are," English said. "We've got to make a proposal the public will have confidence in. We're not going to propose epoxy unless and until we know it works."

Gary Engleson, general manager of American Pipe Lining NW, calls such concerns baseless. "Anyone who suggests that it is hazardous to health — I would challenge them to find even one article supporting that," he said. No one from the Seattle district has called him for information, he said.

Epoxy-barrier coatings have been used to line buildings' drinking-water systems in Europe, Canada and Japan for more than two decades. The technology can coat metal pipes as small as a half-inch in diameter. Building owners in America are only starting to learn of its benefits, but the military — prodded in the early 1980s by Navy engineers in Bremerton — has used it for years for ships and family housing.
 
Scientific experts interviewed for this story said there have been no short-term or long-term health issues connected with the epoxy resin, so long as contractors follow standard protocols.

"They've been using this stuff in the United Kingdom since the 1980s," said Mark Knight, executive director of the Center for the Advancement of Trenchless Technologies at the University of Waterloo in Canada.

All water-pipe products in Washington and other states must be reviewed to certify that they meet NSF International's health standard, said Jim Hudson, a technical expert at the Washington Department of Health's Office of Drinking Water. NSF International, a nonprofit agency that works on the federal government's behalf, certifies products as meeting its "ANSI Standard 61" after a stringent review.

The Navy-patented epoxy resin that Kent School District pumped into its schools' plumbing is certified.

Kent school officials feared that tearing out and replacing pipes would disrupt schools, could release hazardous asbestos and would be cost-prohibitive, High said.

The district rejected using filters as a cheaper alternative. Beth Gilbertson, environmental-health manager, said filters work only if they are changed routinely and if those monitoring them know which ones need to be replaced.

"As staff turns over, people forget to pass on that information," she said. "It ends up not being effective and can be detrimental."

Relining pipes would cost substantially less. Engleson, of American Pipe Lining NW, said school districts like Seattle could cut their spending in half if they chose epoxy relining over pipe replacement.

Kent relined the galvanized steel pipes in 18 schools from 2001 to 2003. Much of the work was done during the school year, from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m., Kent officials said, which avoided disrupting classes.

The average cost for relining plumbing in an elementary school was $150,000, junior high, $250,000 and high school, $280,000, Kent officials said. Altogether, the total project cost $3.2 million.

To date, the Seattle district has spent about $3 million to replace pipes in four buildings last summer, on comprehensive water testing and supplying bottled water to schools since January, English said.

Seattle's testing showed that about one-quarter of all the district's drinking-water fountains had lead levels over the federal recommended limit of 20 parts per billion. More than a dozen schools have excessive iron levels.

The Seattle district's capital budget is already strained.

The first phase of a billion-dollar schools construction and renovation program, approved by voters in 1995, ran an $11 million deficit. A second round of construction is projected to be over budget by $2.4 million by 2011.

The district staff has proposed paying for the water project from unallocated levy money approved by voters for buildings, technology and athletics.

Kent cobbled together its money from unallocated capital funds as well. That's because state policies indirectly may force districts to neglect building-maintenance needs such as plumbing.

In order to qualify for state funds for a major remodeling project, High explained, the state requires that 40 percent of the value of the building be remodeled.

"If you're looking at a simple relining, that's not going to cut it," High said. And both state allocations and local levies haven't been adequate to address all of a district's needs, he said.

"We're faced with the challenges of satisfying instructional and teacher needs or maintenance. It's really a tough choice."

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