‘Your kids are safe,’ schools say after failed lead tests

WATERLOO REGION — Drinking water tests found unsafe levels of lead in 16 local schools and two local daycares including the worst test result in Ontario, the province revealed Friday.

One tap at Clemens Mill Public School in Cambridge tested 312 times above the provincial safety limit in June 2016. It’s the highest lead level of 15,380 tests conducted across Ontario schools and daycares over 12 months.

The Waterloo Region District School Board says it resampled the Clemens Mill tap twice within 30 days as required. The tap passed both times without excessive lead. The same tap passed a lead test in 2015 and water tests since then are normal.

No children were in school when the tap tested abnormally high. Families weren’t told of the result. The school is flushing its taps daily for two years as a precaution. Flushing reduces lead levels in drinking water.

“We don’t believe students at Clemens Mill Public School were exposed to water that exceeded safe levels for lead,” public school spokesperson Nick Manning said in a statement.

“The drinking water is safe at our schools.”

Ontario has mandated a safety standard of 10 parts per billion for lead because even small amounts can harm young children, infants and pregnant women. Children up to six are more sensitive because they are still developing and their small bodies can absorb lead more easily.

The World Health Organization says lead poisoning can lead to a “loss of intelligence, shortening of attention span and disruption of behaviour. Because the human brain has little capacity for repair, these effects are untreatable and irreversible.”

Results made public for the first time show that 18 local schools and daycares failed 36 lead tests out of a total of 598 drinking water tests conducted in this region between April 2016 and last January.

Monsignor Haller Catholic Elementary School in Kitchener failed nine drinking water tests last summer, finding lead concentrations slightly above the safety standard to almost four times the standard. The school passed three other lead tests.

Taps at Monsignor Haller passed lead tests in re-sampling and the school flushes its taps daily, said the Waterloo Catholic District School Board.

The board is also flushing taps daily at St. Anne Catholic Elementary School in Cambridge. St. Anne failed four lead tests last summer but also passed four lead tests after resampling.

“We are very confident that all of our students and staff have access to clean, safe drinking water,” board spokesperson John Shewchuk said in a statement.

Both schools were under renovation and had no students in them when they failed lead tests, Shewchuk said.

The private Kitchener-Waterloo Bilingual School in Waterloo failed six lead tests between April and June 2016. “We tried to figure out what the problem was and we couldn’t,” principal Mona Balea said.

The school installed filters on all taps and then passed 48 consecutive lead tests between July and September last year. It flushes taps daily, monitors water quality and changes the filters annually to keep its water safe.

“We do everything that we are supposed to do,” Balea said.

In a statement, Education Minister Mitzie Hunter said corrective action is taken whenever testing identifies a lead risk.

“These actions could include replacing an old fixture, installing a filter certified to remove lead, or making a tap or water fountain completely inaccessible by bagging it,” Hunter said in a statement.

“Every child in a child care centre or school in Ontario is drinking clean, safe water … Parents can rest assured that their kids are safe.”