Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 8, Issue 2, February 2004
Copyright 2004 Seattle Sun. Please feel free to use the article below in your research. Be sure to cite the Seattle Sun as your source.
Lead in water gets legislators attention
By JAMES BUSH
Here's the good news: children attending classes in 70 Seattle school buildings now have certifiably safe drinking water.
The bad news is it's not the stuff that comes out of the faucet.
Citing growing concerns about high lead levels in drinking water, the Seattle School Board decided in mid-December to provide bottled water for most students (excluding those attending classes in recently constructed school buildings).
This action was spurred by a review of past district studies on lead contamination, plus some spirited lobbying by two parents of students at Wedgwood Elementary School.
Parents test the waters
Last fall, the two, Mark Cooper and Geoffrey Compeau, submitted a water sample taken from the school's kindergarten classroom for professional testing. When it was found to contain elevated levels of lead, they used the district's own studies to isolate four problem fountains at the school and did a second set of water tests. All four water sources were found to contain lead levels well above the maximum allowed by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
Cooper is an associate professor of biology at the University of Washington. Compeau works for an environmental engineering firm.
The real whistle-blowers in this case were their children, who brought home tales of orange-tinted, foul-tasting drinking water. "I had heard about it from my son and my wife," but hadn't thought too much of it, said Compeau.
The situation changed after Cooper took samples from the school. "When Mark sent me a picture of the water in the bottles, that's when my eyes kind of opened," Cooper recalled.
Lead and Cadmium found
Water pipes are commonly made of galvanized steel, that is steel pipes coated with a layer of zinc to retard corrosion. Metals are commonly contaminated with small amounts of other metals, so corroding iron tends to release lead, while corroding zinc can release cadmium.
Other sources of lead contamination include lead solder, which was used to join pipes until the federal government banned its use in 1988 (Seattle banned the use of lead solder in 1980), and brass fixtures, which can contain significant amounts of lead.
Low-level lead exposure can have physical effects ranging from mild diarrhea to hyperactivity, but higher levels can cause kidney and brain damage. It can also adversely affect the development of a child's brain and nervous system. Cadmium is considered a probable carcinogen (cancer-causing substance) which has been linked to kidney damage and softening of bones.
Although EPA maximum contaminant levels are set well below the point at which physical effects are seen, both lead and cadmium are cumulative toxins, which are stored in the human body over a long period of time. Cadmium has a retention half-life of 20 years, meaning that if a five-year-old ingests it, at age 25, about half of it will still remain in his body, said Cooper.
The Seattle School District began baseline water testing in January and is committed to a continuing, comprehensive testing program, said district spokeswoman Lynn Steinberg. Bottled water will be provided until district officials are convinced that tap water can be safely consumed by students. "We still don't have a complete picture" of the water quality situation in schools, she said.
District custodians have long been instructed to run drinking fountains and water faucets before the school day begins to flush pipes, and reminders to continue this practice have been sent to all schools, added Steinberg.
While the district has done what Steinberg calls remedial work over the years, replacing some fixtures and sections of pipe, Cooper said administrators have done an "abysmal" job addressing the lead issue.
A 1993 report he and Compeau found during their search of district documents contained a recommendation all piping be replaced at four elementary schools with consistently high lead levels: Fairmount Park, Mann, Schmitz Park, and Wedgwood.
That work was never completed, even though the district has twice run major capital ballot issues since then. The district did test the water in 27 schools for lead as recently as 2001, but a comprehensive testing program has never been put into place.
New legislation proposed
State Sen. Ken Jacobsen (46th District) plans to change that. He is the prime sponsor of a bill (SB 6271) to mandate testing programs in all school districts, under the supervision of the state Department of Health. If a district's water is not in compliance, Jacobsen's bill would prohibit it from submitting a construction ballot issue to voters until a remediation plan is drafted.
Jacobsen said the Seattle School District has paid lip service to lead testing in the past, but simply hasn't taken action.
"It makes the hair on your neck stand on edge when you think of the indifference of the administrators," Jacobsen said. "What it shows me is that the school district can't be trusted on these kinds of issues."
State Rep. Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney (46th District) has sponsored identical legislation in the state House of Representatives and many Seattle area legislators have signed on to the bills as co-sponsors.
While Jacobsen said the Seattle Schools situation inspired his legislation, (he has met with Cooper and Compeau and his wife is employed at Wedgwood Elementary) he noted that other legislators have cited similar problems in the communities they represent.
Overseeing water testing programs in the state's many school districts could cost the Department of Health around $1 million annually, but Jacobsen said it's worth the investment.
"If we don't do it," Jacobsen said, "what we're saying is we can't afford safe drinking water for students."
The major question that remains is how the problem will be fixed. District officials estimate that the piping in the city's 40 most threatened schools can be replaced for about $10 million. The School Board declined to increase the amount of its upcoming $178 million capital levy to cover the problem, but Cooper is confident that money within the levy can be shifted around to fund pipe replacement, if voters approve the levy on Feb. 3.
Despite news reports that cast him as a district critic, Cooper said he's been impressed with the quick response to the water issue by the new School Board members, especially Sally Soriano. He's also become an advocate for approval of the capital levy.
"It is absolutely imperative that all Seattle citizens band together to help our Seattle Schools in their time of need," Cooper said.
However, Cooper has also called for an investigation into the district's sluggish response to the issue of contaminated water in schools. "I feel, at this point," he said, "the best thing for the Seattle public to know is the full truth."