Lead level in many schools’ water above limit

Dozens of Hamilton and Halton schools are flushing water fixtures after lead tests done earlier this year found levels that exceed the provincial standard.

A total of 36 schools in the Halton District School Board had taps that exceeded the provincial threshold of 10 micrograms per litre, said communications manager Marnie Denton. She said the board has “communicated directly” with parents whose children attend those schools.

In a letter to parents from Burlington’s M.M. Robinson High School, the school said at least one sample tested above the threshold and that daily water system flushing before school will “ensure the water is safe to drink.”

The board told The Post the fixture was a drinking fountain.

Fixtures could be drinking fountains or taps used for drinking water or food preparation.

Superintendent of facilities services Maia Puccetti said more information would be available next month.

“A report regarding drinking water will be provided to the board in October, and a copy of the report and test results will be posted on the board website.”

At the Halton Catholic board, this year’s testing found lead levels above 10 micrograms per litre at six schools, according to a report presented at the Sept. 4 school board meeting.

One fixture each at Burlington’s St. Patrick Catholic Elementary School and Oakville’s St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic Secondary School exceeded the limit. There were four problematic taps at Bishop Reding Catholic Secondary School in Milton.

At three schools, taps that exceeded the lead standard were removed or reclassified: Assumption Catholic Secondary School in Burlington, Lumen Christi Catholic Elementary School in Milton and St. Vincent Catholic Elementary School in Oakville.

Flushing is also taking place at three other Burlington schools — Holy Rosary Catholic Elementary School, St. Gabriel Catholic Elementary School and St. Raphael Catholic Elementary School — after they exceeded the standard in previous years. Flushing typically takes place for two years after high test results.

In Hamilton’s public school board, 43 schools had taps exceeding the provincial threshold, according to the most recent round of testing.

Testing conducted in June at all Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board schools and child-care centres revealed three schools had fixtures surpassing the limit.

Ontario’s Safe Drinking Water Act requires daycares and schools to test several fixtures each year for lead and flush their plumbing regularly. A standing sample is taken after the tap hasn’t been used for at least six hours, then the tap is flushed for five minutes, left unused for half an hour, and a flushed sample is taken. If a flushed sample reads about the limit, facilities will often have to flush out their entire plumbing system daily, as is the case at Bishop Reding and Holy Rosary, which exceeded the standard on flushed samples in 2017.

The provincial government says flushing “has been shown to reduce lead levels in water at drinking water fixtures.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) says “there is no known level of lead exposure that is considered safe,” stating the body stores lead in the brain, liver, kidneys and bones.

It encourages “the removal of plumbing and fittings containing lead.” However, the WHO concedes that “as this is costly, other measures, such as corrosion control and minimizing the dissolving

of lead in water systems, should be implemented in the meantime.”

At the public board, Puccetti said some “washroom and servery” upgrades are done each year as part of the school renewal program. She noted that the majority of school piping is already copper, “though there may be external water main lines that are galvanized steel or lead, depending on the age of the municipal services and the water line into the building.”

The risks associated with ingesting lead are “greater for children, because their growing bodies are still developing and absorb lead more easily,” the

Halton health department’s environmental health manager Nicole Mathews said in an email. She pointed to Statistics Canada data from 2012-13 that show about 96 per cent of Canadians aged three to 79 years have detectable levels of lead in their blood, but noted nearly all fall below the “guidance value” of 10 micrograms per decilitre.

“Drinking water is not generally the most significant source of exposure to lead in Canada,” Mathews said. “Lead is a naturally occurring element and is also present and in soil, food and indoor dust.”

Burlington parent Cheryl DeLugt said it’s confusing to hear

that even small amounts of lead can be unsafe, but also that flushing is enough to protect students. DeLugt is an emergency room nurse and a candidate for public school board trustee, and her daughter attends M.M. Robinson. She says she’d like to see the school board post detailed logs of each day’s flushing online “so the public can see it’s actually occurring.”

In the meantime, she’s sending her daughter to school with bottled water.

“I’m not going to have my child be the guinea pig.”