What Fairfax County Public Schools Have High Lead Levels
Prompted by Flint water crisis, Northern Va. schools begin testing for lead
Officials in Arlington County found elevated levels of lead in a drinking fountain at Jamestown Elementary. The school district began testing for lead this summer, prompted by concerns raised in school districts across the country about lead contamination in drinking water in schools. (Amanda Voisard/For The Washington Post)
Northern Virginia school systems have begun testing water from drinking fountains, cafeteria sinks and other sources in schools for lead, a move spurred by the crisis in Flint, Mich., where officials found widespread lead contamination in water that flowed to homes and schools.
Public health officials in Manassas City, Alexandria and Arlington County took samples from water fountains and school cafeterias. The tests found traces of lead in schools in all three districts, prompting officials in Manassas City and Arlington to remove drinking fountains and replace fixtures. In Alexandria, traces of lead were found in four samples, but all were well below 15 parts per billion, the threshold at which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends taking action. Fairfax County Public Schools, one of the largest districts in the nation, will test its water this fall.
Many children attend aging schools, and children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of lead poisoning. But few schools are required to test drinking water for lead. The situation in Flint — where the number of children with elevated lead in their blood doubled after the city started pulling water from the Flint River — highlighted the continuing risks of lead contamination and has spurred schools across the country to begin testing.
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The school systems in Northern Virginia join several others in the nation that have voluntarily tested for lead, including those in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Portland, Ore., and Newark. The tests have unearthed acutely high levels of lead in some school water sources, leading districts to shut off taps, order schoolchildren to be tested and send in bottled water.
Alexandria had not tested its water since 1999. Fairfax and Arlington counties had gone a dozen years without water testing. Both have implemented regular testing regimens.
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Alexandria spokeswoman Helen Lloyd said the alarming news out of Flint inspired the school system to double-check its water. The school took samples over Memorial Day weekend and got the results in July.
"It was off the back of Flint," Lloyd said. The school system made the decision to test the water after "seeing what happened there and needing to make sure our own schools are completely safe."
Loudoun County Public Schools last tested water in all of its schools in 2004. It implemented a system-wide testing regimen this year and plans to test all schools every three years. The first round of tests, in 11 schools, found lead levels below the EPA threshold.Officials will test an additional 20 schools in October. Almeta Radford, spokeswoman for Manassas City Public Schools, said the school system is working on a plan to regularly test water in its facilities.
Water in Arlington schools was last tested in 2004, after lead contamination in D.C. water sparked concerns. The school system found elevated lead levels in several schools and fixed the problem.
Officials in Arlington decided to re-test this year because "recent press coverage about lead in drinking water at schools and cities around the nation has elevated public concern over this issue," they wrote in an email to parents.
The discovery of unsafe levels of lead in a drinking water fountain at Jamestown Elementary in a wealthy North Arlington neighborhood alarmed some parents. The school district removed the water fountain, which was in the oldest part of the 63-year-old building.
Thomas Jensen, president of the Jamestown Elementary Parent-Teacher Association and an environmental lawyer who has followed news of the crisis in Flint closely, said he was "concerned, but not panicked" about his son and planned to get him tested for lead during his next checkup. He said he doubts his son drank much from the water fountain at Jamestown and said teachers at the school urge students to bring water bottles so they can stay hydrated in class.
But he said the discovery of lead in his neighborhood school shows the extent of the lead contamination problem; even wealthy suburban districts can be affected.
Jensen said that if lead can be found in the drinking water in "one of the best-funded school districts in the country and one of the best-equipped schools, it only suggests how severe the problem is in the rest of the country. . . . This is like finding bedbugs in the Lincoln Bedroom at the White House. It illustrates the severity and the scope of a nationwide challenge."
Jensen lauded school and county officials for being proactive about testing for lead and notifying parents of the results.
"I'm relieved that the county and the school district are taking the leadership to look for the problems and to fix them where they found them," Jensen said.
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Moriah Balingit Moriah Balingit is an education reporter for The Washington Post, where she has worked since 2014. She previously covered crime, city hall and crime in city hall at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Follow
What Fairfax County Public Schools Have High Lead Levels
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/prompted-by-flint-water-crisis-northern-va-schools-begin-testing-for-lead/2016/08/17/10f8152c-64a0-11e6-be4e-23fc4d4d12b4_story.html
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