Elevated water lead levels found in multiple Edmonds School District schools

Multiple schools in the Edmonds School District reported water lead levels that exceed state school limits – including a kindergarten classroom sink at Edmonds’ Sherwood Elementary School that measured nearly 65 times the level allowed in public schools.

That reading of 323 parts per billion (ppb) is also more than 20 times the level at which the Environmental Protection Agency requires corrective action.

“I would say a lead level of over 300 ppb is of considerable concern,” said State Rep. Gerry Pollet, D-Seattle, who authored the 2021 legislation requiring all public K-12 schools built before 2016 to test for lead in the water. “That’s why we’re testing every single classroom.”

The Edmonds School District still hasn’t tested all of its schools and plans to continue testing as many as possible during the remainder of the school year, said spokesperson Curtis Campbell. Under the state law, water sources with lead above 5 ppb require corrective action over the next six months while ones that exceed 15 ppb need to be shut down immediately. All school buildings must meet the new state standard by 2026.

All of the Edmonds School District schools tested so far had at least one water source that will require remediation, but the results varied widely by school site and even within the buildings themselves. For example, Hilltop Elementary had one sink in a workroom with a 285 ppb reading; a classroom with 83ppb measurement; and dozens of other rooms at 2 ppb or below. The workroom is a teacher and staff space that students typically don’t access, Campbell said.

Seven water sources at Alderwood Early Childhood Center met or exceeded the immediate shutdown limit of 15ppb, with the highest at 41. At Edmonds Elementary, the most elevated test came from a drinking water fountain near the library office at 43 ppb. Seaview Elementary’s highest lead level was 12 ppb, with the vast majority of classroom water sources less than 1 ppb.

There is often a correlation between schools that have undergone more recent renovations and lower lead levels in water fixtures, Campbell said. This is likely due to the use of modern materials that meet current standards, including updated fixtures, piping and solder.

There is no known safe level of lead in children’s blood, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Exposure to lead can result in behavior and learning problems, lowered IQ and slowed growth – especially among children under age 6 whose bodies are rapidly developing.

Drinking water typically contributes a smaller portion of overall lead exposure for most people except for infants, who receive the lead via water mixed with formula, according to Gift-Noelle Wango, the Children & Family Health Supervisor with the Snohomish Department of Health. When kids are found to have high blood lead levels, the primary source is not usually water, Wango added.

“While all sources of lead exposure are important to address, the likelihood of school drinking water alone being the sole cause of an elevated blood lead level is very low,” Wango noted. “This is especially true in schools that are actively testing and taking corrective actions, which reflects a strong commitment to child health and safety.”

Parents react to lead news

Of the 49 water outlets tested at Sherwood, 25 showed elevated lead levels – though the rest were significantly lower, with readings at 30 ppb or below.

Sherwood Elementary parents, who received word of the water testing results Monday afternoon, swapped information about the findings, piecing together which classrooms had higher lead levels and figuring out where their children were filling water bottles.

At least two moms interviewed by My Neighborhood News Network, who requested anonymity for their children’s privacy, said they had already scheduled lead-testing visits with their medical providers. One, whose daughter is in the classroom that has the highest levels, said her daughter routinely filled her water bottle at that sink during this year. The school had portable water-filling stations available throughout the school on Tuesday, including a station outside that classroom.

Many parents still had questions about the safety of the water overall, and wanted to know more about the testing mechanisms. For example, did the test occur after the sink was unused for a period of time, which might have explained the substantially higher concentrations there? Other parents questioned if the district had undergone prior lead testing, especially for water in older schools.

“If there are questions and concerns, we provided the contact information for the maintenance director who is well versed in this,” Campbell said. “We just wanted to share this information with families so they are aware.”

How does lead get into water?

Olympic View Water and Sewer District provides the water for schools and homes that fall into their territory, which includes Sherwood Elementary School. In 2023, the district tested nearly three dozen sites throughout their service area for lead, and found no levels that required action, according to Olympic View General Manager Bob Danson. The district ensures that water up to the meter meets federal standards for lead. Beyond that, private plumbing carries the water through homes and buildings to the faucets, he said.

The most common source of lead in the drinking water supply comes via lead pipes, faucets and fixtures, according to the EPA. Older homes and buildings can have lead pipes that leach the toxin into the water. A variety of factors, from the water chemistry to the level of wear in the pipes, can impact how much of the lead enters the water supply. Lead amounts may increase when water sits in the pipes for long periods of time, compared to flowing water that may flush out the initial lead that’s accumulated.

The Edmonds School District will work with the Department of Health to test individual fixtures for sources that exceeded the standards, Campbell said. After the source is identified and corrected, there will be follow-up testing, he added.

Legislation builds on efforts to reduce childhood lead

The new state law requiring public school testing was driven in part by the knowledge there is no safe level of lead in drinking water, said Pollet, who is also an instructor at the University of Washington School of Public Health. Even water that falls under the 15 ppb federal marker could be harmful to developing brains, which is why he suggested the 5 ppb figure in the legislation, he said. It’s especially important to ensure school drinking water is safe since a child spends so much of their waking hours in a classroom, likely consuming much of their daily water intake there, he said.

Over the past four decades, lead blood levels in U.S. children have dropped significantly as the toxin has been removed from products like gasoline and paint, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Today, the most common source of lead poisoning comes from lead-based paint and contaminated soil, according to the Washington State Department of Health. Homes built before 1978, the year in which lead paint was banned in the U.S., could have lead-based paint which can chip, flake or get ground into dust that toddlers might accidentally ingest.

Lead exposure most worrisome in early years 

Lead exposure is the most troublesome in the early years of a child’s development up until around age 6, with the highest risk from exposure in the first three years of life, explained Dr. Rachel Skalina, a pediatrician with the Community Health Center of Snohomish County. That’s because lead can more easily cross into the nervous system during those early years of rapid brain development, leading to problems like developmental delays, behavioral struggles and lowered IQ. Some exposures such as eating lead paint chips or ingesting contaminated lead paint dust can present a higher risk than lead in water which may be more diluted, she added.

Symptoms of childhood lead exposure can be subtle. Often, parents learn of the exposure only after their child’s blood is tested. Blood screenings measure the lead levels at that moment in time and can’t determine whether someone has ever been exposed. Some providers will use a finger prick test for initial screenings and follow up with a blood test if the results are elevated. There isn’t a procedure that can remove lead from the body, unless someone has experienced very high levels or poisoning, she said.

“Most of the time, the action we take is to figure out what the exposure is, and stop the exposure,” she said.

At the CHC, Skalina works with many children who have Medicaid insurance and receive blood lead screenings as part of their routine wellness visits. In Washington, she’s rarely seen children with levels that require monitoring. Those who do have those elevated levels have been exposed to lead in another country or had parents who worked in higher-risk jobs like demolishing buildings with lead paint.

“Anyone who is worried should make an appointment with a provider,” she said. “Testing is easy and accessible and will help give us a scope of the problem.”

For more information on water lead levels in the Edmonds School District, visit Water Quality Testing – Edmonds School District.

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How to Reduce Lead Exposure in Drinking Water

• Use cold water for drinking and cooking as hot water is more likely to contain higher levels of lead.
• Let the water run for a few minutes before using it, especially if the faucet hasn’t been used in several hours.
• Consider using a water filter that’s certified to remove lead (not all water filters remove lead).

Source: Snohomish County Health Department

This article was been updated June 4 to reflect additional information shared by the Edmonds School District.