County tests find low levels of lead in Healdsburg Elementary water

Parents and staff at Healdsburg Elementary School were offered reassurances Thursday after a new round of testing detected only low levels of lead in the campus water fountains.

The results of tests conducted on behalf of the Sonoma County Department of Public Health contrast with those delivered earlier this week to parents at the K-2 school. District officials reported Monday that testing done in December turned up lead concentrations in excess of federal standards - by a factor of more than 58 in one water fountain.

The fountains already, by then, had been disabled and replaced by bottled water stations, beginning in November.

But the new testing done for the county showed the risk of lead exposure to be low and should put parents at ease after the potentially frightening news delivered to them earlier, county health officer Karen Milman said.

“I’m hoping it’s very reassuring,” Milman said Thursday. “I would just emphasize this is a good opportunity to alert the community about potential exposure in their life,” including plumbing in older schools and other buildings.

It remains unclear what caused the discrepancy in lab results, which were obtained from different facilities. Milman said she did not know what methodology was used previously, but she was “very confident” in the new data and the certified testing methodology utilized.

The original samples submitted in December by the Redwood Empire Schools Insurance Group, were tested at a lab in New Jersey. Results from all three campus water fountains exceeded the federal limit of 15 parts per billion.

One was twice the federal standard; another more than eight times the threshold; and the third nearly 59 times what the Environmental Protection Agency deems an unacceptable risk.

But the highest level detected in the latest testing was eight parts per billion in just one fountain. All other sources were below five parts per billion, considered undetectable, health department spokesman Scott Alonso said.

Healdsburg Unified School District Superintendent Chris Vanden Heuvel said the bottled water would remain on campus to “make sure that there is no future risk of this happening,” even though the recent tests would permit the school to restore use of the water fountains.

Questions about the water were raised in November when a staff member filling a bowl noticed cloudiness in the liquid and reported it to administrators.

The water fountains were quickly disabled and water bottles brought in while the district consulted an industrial hygienist on appropriate procedures, Vanden Heuvel said.

Samples collected in early December were submitted for testing, and the results returned days before the Christmas holiday, he said.

In addition to elevated lead levels, some of the samples from the main school building, which is about 80 years old, exceeded standards for manganese, iron and turbidity, as well. Only lead testing was conducted in the samples collected this week, Alonso said.

Milman has said iron and manganese are considered “secondary contaminants” that affect appearance and taste of the water, generally without raising health concerns.

Samples collected from the kindergarten wing and the portable buildings raised no concerns, Vanden Heuvel said.

The district waited two months, however, before alerting campus parents and public health officials about the main building fountains, which would have been installed during an era when lead was still used to solder plumbing.

“We wanted a plan of action before we alerted anyone,” Vanden Heuvel said, “and we were working with an industrial hygienist, who was monitoring the situation and making recommendations.”

He said the district was trying to determine how quickly it could replace the school’s aged plumbing system. Plans are underway to do the work this summer, at an estimated cost of $100,000, though the job has not been put out for official bids.

Vanden Heuvel defended the campus administration’s response, stressing that it was “worth saying” the school was not required to report the issue to public health officials.

“And I want to say I think we did a lot of things well,” he continued. “We shut the water off right away. Students were not exposed as soon as we had any concerns.”

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.