Wa: Schools told high water standards will cost - lead, cadmium

[Guest guest]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/195993_lead20.html

Schools told high water standards will cost

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

By DEBORAH BACH

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Adopting tougher drinking water standards for Seattle Public Schools

than those set by the federal government could cost nearly $22 million,

a School Board committee heard yesterday.

At a policy and legislative meeting, board members mulled over a

consultant's report that outlined options for addressing lead and other

contaminants in drinking water at the district's approximately 100

schools. The committee has informally agreed to adopt a standard of 10

parts per billion (ppb) as a maximum level for lead in drinking water,

twice as stringent as the 20 ppb recommended by the U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency. The district is conducting corrective work based on

the tougher standard, though it must still go to the School Board for a

vote.

The report by Economic & Engineering Services of Bellevue, the firm

hired by the district to conduct systemwide water tests earlier this

year, also detailed the costs of adopting EPA standards for recommended

maximum levels of iron, considered an aesthetic or " secondary " contaminant.

The stricter lead standard requires fixing about 675 drinking fountains

by either replacing the fountains and connecting pipes, or replacing

fountains and adding water filters. Pipe systems must also be replaced

at two schools where high cadmium levels were discovered. The cost of

the work would total $1.2 million to $2.2 million.

The costs for adhering to aesthetic standards would increase the total

amount to between $4.6 million to $19.2 million. The total would depend

on the chosen options, which range from replacing pipes when half or

more of a school's drinking fountains exceed the limit for iron -- which

would affect 10 schools -- to full pipe replacement in all 45 schools

where iron was detected.

The long-term goal, according to the report, is to replace pipes in the

district's approximately 40 schools that are at least 50 years old by

2014. The work would be paid for through taxpayer-approved levies.

The district has already spent about $1.4 million replacing pipes in

four schools this summer after tests showed lead-contaminated water in

schools throughout the district, and replacing fixtures in about 20

schools. The cost of testing and consulting through 2005 is expected to

total about another $1.1 million, plus at least $1.2 million for

providing bottled water to schools until the work is completed.

Depending on the option chosen, that could take between two and four years.

The committee made no recommendation on the report, which generated some

controversy among audience members at the meeting. The district is

testing water filters at two locations with high iron levels -- Memorial

Stadium and the old Magnolia Elementary School, which is closed -- and

plans to start testing them at more schools next week.

Mark , one of two Wedgwood Elementary parents who alerted the

School Board to concerns about drinking water a year ago, criticized the

author of the report, EES consultant Gregg Kirmeyer, for failing to

point out in the document that water filters do not effectively screen

out cadmium, a toxic metal most commonly found in industrial workplaces.

At high levels of exposure, it can cause kidney damage and lung cancer.

was also critical that the recent round of water tests only

sampled one-third of fountains districtwide for cadmium. Fountains have

been turned on at 18 schools where lead was below EPA limits, and

said the absence of thorough testing for cadmium puts children at risk.

" Today, children have been drinking elevated cadmium, because it hasn't

been tested, " he said. " It's just like lead -- in fact, it's more deadly. "

Kirmeyer said the tests focused on lead based on EPA guidelines, which

do not set limits for cadmium in schools' drinking water. " It was beyond

what was required by EPA to begin with, " he said.

Ed Schwartz, a parent from Alternative Elementary No. 2 in the city's

North End, objected to opinions in the EES report attributed to Anne

Camper, an adjunct associate professor of microbiology at Montana State

University. The report quotes Camper as saying there is no evidence that

the presence of iron, turbidity and some types of bacteria in water

causes health problems.

However, a 2002 report by the EPA notes that biofilms -- a thin coating

of largely organic matter that clings to the inside of pipes -- can

shelter potentially harmful pathogens such as salmonella.

" If there's an ecosystem, a lot of things might happen and one of them

is that pathogenic critters might live in there, " Schwartz said. " I see

a potential whitewash here and I'm concerned. I'm suspicious. "

The issue is expected to come back before the policy and legislative

committee in two weeks for further consideration.

© 1998-2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The material in this post is distributed without profit to those

who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included

information for research and educational purposes.

For more information go to:

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html

<http://oregon.uoregon.edu/%7Ecsundt/documents.htm>

http://oregon.uoregon.edu/~csundt/documents.htm

<http://oregon.uoregon.edu/%7Ecsundt/documents.htm>

If you wish to use copyrighted material from this email for

purposes that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission

from the copyright owner.