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LaBrae officials find lead in drinking water at Bascom Elementary
By Ed Runyan
LEAVITTSBURG
Parents of some students in the LaBrae schools sent their students to school with bottled water Friday.
That’s because the school district informed them Thursday that drinking-water tests at Bascom Elementary School showed some results between 5 and 15 parts per billion for lead.
The federal government has set 15 ppb as the allowable level for lead in drinking water. Above that, officials are required to take action.
LaBrae Superintendent A.J. Calderone said he notified parents Thursday in an email that many of the results from water fountains and other drinking-water sources at Bascom were below 5 ppb, which is considered an “undetectable” level.
Some were above 5 ppb, but after flushing the water for a couple of minutes, a second test showed none were above 15 ppb, he said.
The preliminary results “came back safe, but we want to reduce lead as much as possible,” Calderone said.
The school district has begun to flush water at Bascom each morning to reduce the amount of lead in the water, he said. Parents were advised they could send their students to school with bottled water if they chose.
Calderone declined to release the specific water results to The Vindicator.
The school district built a new complex in 2005 that serves students in grades three through 12, but Bascom was built about 60 years ago, and would seem like the more-likely place to find lead in the fixtures or pipes, Calderone said.
About a third of the 100 water results have been received so far, none from the Grade 3-12 complex, Calderone said.
Testing at LaBrae was prompted by a presentation by representatives from the Trumbull County Board of Health on Feb. 4 at a meeting of Trumbull County superintendents, Calderone said.
Rod Hedge, sanitarian for the Trumbull County Board of Health, said there has been talk at the state level of adding testing requirements at schools and other locations after the discovery that there were high lead readings at schools and homes there.
To “get out front” of impending new requirements, the health department urged superintendents to do practice testing on their own. The health department assisted with testing at LaBrae, Champion and Newton Falls.
Frank Migliozzi, Trumbull County health commissioner, said if schools get any readings above 15 ppb, they should plan to do a follow-up test and follow a set of recommendations that the health department received last week.
Calderone said when all of the testing is complete, the district will determine the source of lead that has been found and determine whether it is coming from plumbing, pipes or some other place and decide whether fixtures or pipes need to be replaced.
A meeting with the public also will be scheduled to discuss the results, he said.
Calderone noted that most students probably consume more water at home than at school, so he believes it’s also important to educate families about checking the lead levels in their homes.