Written by: Seth Gordon, Newberg Graphic 

School district takes action to bring facilities into compliance with state and federal standards

The drinking water in Newberg Public Schools has received a clean bill of health after the district tested a total of 173 outlets for lead contamination in June.

The biggest takeaway for the district was that all of the 80 drinking fountains in the 14 buildings that will be used this coming school year tested well below the EPA’s maximum contamination level of 20 parts per billion (ppb).

A few problem spots were identified, however, as 10 outlets showed levels above the limit. Most of those were sinks that are not intended for drinking (like dish or hand washing sinks), though two were sinks used in food preparation.

The district replaced the faucets on most outlets that tested over the limit and drew new samples to be tested by Alexin Analytical Laboratories in Tigard. The district is still waiting for results on most of them even after paying extra to have them expedited.

Those outlets will also remain shut off until test results show the water to be safe.

“They really oversampled,” district communications director Claudia Stewart said. “The intent is to sample water from prep sinks and from drinking fountains because, obviously, that’s where it’s going to impact, but they did all the sinks.”

Two of the outlets that tested over the EPA limit — a drinking fountain in a portable classroom (67.1 ppb) and a game room sink (29.4 ppb) — are located at Sitka Academy, but the district is not operating that program this year due to a lack of students.

Due to the time crunch the facilities staff was under as it prepped to get buildings ready for the school year, the district has not yet replaced the fixtures on those outlets, according to Stewart, but does plan to address them.

The district has received the results from the second round of testing for two outlets and both came in below the EPA standard.

A sink in building J at Newberg High School that initially tested at 40.9 ppb came in at 18.8 after the fixture was replaced. According to Stewart, that particular sink is used for dishwashing, not drinking or food preparation, so the district has not done any further remediation to address the fact that the level of contamination is still close to the standard.

Stewart said facilities staff are still discussing how to address outlets that are similarly below but still close to the standard. A decision on how to deal with such outlets, though, may be included in the draft Healthy and Safe Schools Plan the district has to submit to the Oregon Department of Education by Oct. 1 (see accompanying story).

The district is still awaiting the second round of results for the four other outlets at NHS — a prep sink (50.3) and a regular sink (48.6) in J building, and two sinks (23.8 and 80.2) in F building — that initially tested over the limit.

Two faucets at Mabel Rush Elementary School were replaced after testing over the limit. A prep sink (32.0 ppb) that was retested registered as “no detection,” meaning the level of lead contamination was lower than 2 ppb, while the district is awaiting results on a second sink that tested at 20.6.

Lastly, Mountain View Middle School had a kitchen sink test at 21.8 ppb and is awaiting results from the retest.

Of the 80 drinking fountains that will be in regular use (not including the one in Sitka Academy), 69 showed “no detection” when tested, with eight registering between 2.1 and 5.0 ppb. Three fountains showed levels above 5.0 ppb, with the highest concentration coming in at 6.8.

Per standards set by the Oregon Health Authority, district staff followed procedures for testing and remediation found in the EPA’s guideline manual “3 T’s for Reducing Lead in Drinking Water in Schools.”

The test protocol followed is known as a “first draw” and is intended to simulate regular use.

Water in the outlet is run for approximately two minutes and then shut off for between 8 and 18 hours before a 250 millileter sample is drawn.

Of the 173 outlets tested, 98 registered as no detection and 32 tested between 2.1 and 5.0 ppb. Of the remaining 24 that tested below the 20 ppb limit, 16 were between 5.1 and 10.0, three were between 10.1 and 15.0 and five were between 15.1 and 20.

Full results of the testing are available on the district website at www.newberg.k12.or.us/district/lead-levels-safe-school-drinking-fountains.

Stewart added that the district has asked principals to follow up with athletic coaches to make sure that drinking water used for practices and games is drawn from outlets intended for drinking and therefore have been tested.