Officials: Lead Levels Drop In Elementary School Water

HEALDSBURG - Healdsburg school district officials said Thursday levels of lead found in water at the Healdsburg Elementary School’s main building late last year are now well within federal limits.

Lead exceeding the federal limit of 15 parts per billion was found in the water fountains in November when a staff member noticed cloudiness in the water.

Lab tests showed increased cloudiness, manganese, iron and lead in the main building, but nothing in the water in the kindergarten wing or portable buildings on campus, Healdsburg Unified School District Superintendent Chris Vanden Heuvel said in a letter to the community on Monday.

The district then disabled all the water fountains and provided bottled water stations on the campus.

Heuvel said the lead in the water is the result of an aging plumbing system in the elementary school’s main building.

“Any structure constructed before 1989 could possibly have plumbing materials that may leach into drinking water. Thus, a problem such as this is not uncommon in older buildings,” Heuvel said in a news release on the District’s website Thursday.

Fifteen water samples from 10 locations were taken this week and only one test reported lead levels greater than five parts per billion.

That location contained 8 parts per billion, and the level dropped to below five parts per billion after the drinking water fountain was flushed, the Superintendent said.

The District plans to continue supplying bottled water and replacing the entire plumbing system in the main building at the elementary school this summer, Heuvel said.

-Bay City News, image via ShutterStock