The Bainbridge Island School District will hold an informational meeting about lead in drinking water this Thursday.
The forum follows recent tests that detected elevated levels of the metal in a number of fixtures at Ordway Elementary School.
The meeting will take place at the Bainbridge High School Commons from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 10. The school board meeting that had been planned for Thursday evening has been rescheduled to March 17.
The school district has also hired Confluence Engineering Group to develop and implement a plan to properly flush and resample Ordway’s water system for lead. Kitsap Public Health District and the Washington State Department of Health will review and approve the plans before implementation.
At Thursday’s meeting, representatives from the firm and the state will present technical and health-related information regarding lead in drinking water and also respond to questions.
Panelists include: Melinda Friedman, president and professional engineer of the Confluence Engineering Group; Alexander Garrard, director of the Washington Poison Center; Elisabeth Long, an epidemiologist with the Washington State Department of Health; John Kiess, assistant environmental health director at the Kitsap Public Health District; Scott Daniels, an agency administrator with the Kitsap Public Health District; and Fred Walters, a pediatrician at Bainbridge Pediatrics.
School district officials announced in an email last week that elevated lead levels had been found in 23 fixtures at Ordway. Students and staff were told not to drink water from taps at the school, and bottled water was brought in.
In the email, signed by Superintendent Faith Chapel and Tamela Van Winkle, the district’s director of facilities, the district said it was not sure of the health risks the contaminated water has posed to students and advised worried parents to take their children to the doctor.
“The health implications of the water test results are unclear at this point in our investigation,” Chapel and Van Winkle wrote in the email. “Additional sampling and analysis is needed and is underway. We recommend that any parents who are concerned about health problems in their child see their primary health care provider for evaluation.”
Water samples at the school were collected during winter break, which ended Jan. 1.
The district said initial results from tests showed elevated lead levels in nine water fixtures at Ordway.
District officials said corrective actions were done “immediately” and that water fixtures were taken out of service and lines were flushed.
On Feb. 17, the district resampled all of the plumbing fixtures at Ordway that had been tested in December.
Water sample results came back from the laboratory on Feb. 29, revealing one-third (23 of 68) of the water fixtures exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency’s “action level” for lead, 20 parts per billion.
Sample results had a range of nondetect (less than 1 ppb) to 384 ppb. District officials said the 384 ppb value was “an extreme outlier” and was the only value above 118 ppb. It came from an art room sink and not a drinking fountain.
The district notified the county and state health departments of the water sample results on Feb. 29 and sent a letter to Ordway families, which was distributed to the rest of the district on March 1.
