water steps

Editor's Note: This letter was distributed to students, families, and staff of Seattle Public Schools last week.

Because we are committed to the health of our students and staff, we wanted to let you know about the latest results from Seattle Public Schools' ongoing water testing program. Water samples recently examined indicated levels of lead that are higher than the Seattle School District standard of 10 parts of lead per billion parts of water. For comparison's sake, Seattle's standard is one of the highest in the nation, compared to the Environmental Protection Agency standard of 20 parts per billion. The results indicated elevated lead levels in 32 of our schools, involving a total of 323 water fountains and sinks.

We suspect that the elevated levels may be due to the fact that the samples were taken in May 2006 from standing water, after the water pipes had been shut off for a while to allow for the arsenic tests. We normally test water every three years, and we were scheduled to routinely take water samples at these schools in 2007. But because the district had already collected water samples during testing for arsenic in spring 2006, a decision was made to obtain results for lead as a way to get early results and reduce costs.

Because we want to err on the side of caution, we are taping off the affected water fountains and putting signs on sinks instructing students and staff not to drink the water.

In addition, I have ordered bottled water to be provided to the 32 schools involved until further testing can be completed.

We are also working closely with the state and local health departments, who were informed of our decision based on putting student safety first.

Curiously, many of these non-compliant results came from newer schools that have copper pipes, all of which have previously passed testing in 2004. Testing is under way to identify the cause of these results. Since 2004, the school district has spent $13 million to replace existing water pipes and has installed about 1,000 new fixtures in schools.

We presented the latest test results to our Water Quality Oversight Committee, comprised of community members, parents and students, last week. The committee, formed in March 2005 to oversee testing and repairs to the district's drinking-water system, agreed that fountains should be taped and information signs placed by the sinks until these new results can be explained. I expect the test results to take several weeks, after which time a decision will be made about whether to retest other schools. We will write you again when we have more information to share, and you can also visit our website at www.seattleschools.org

Raj Manhas

Superintendent