Elevated lead levels have been detected in the drinking water at several Delta schools.
The school district made public late last week the results of a first round of water testing conducted in "three of our older schools in Delta," although it didn't name them.
"Each school showed slightly positive lead levels above the maximum acceptable level in 'preflush' pipe water (eight out of 15 samples were above the maximum acceptable level)," a notice on the district's website stated. According to the district, three of the positive tests were in drinking fountains.
In post-flush testing, only one source of the 15 was still high.
The district's facilities department has put together an initial mitigation plan starting this week that includes removing the suspect drinking fountains, daily morning flushes of all pipes in older schools and water testing in all schools built before 1989.
Based on the test results, future plans will be developed.
The tests results are expected back from the laboratory by mid-May and once received, the district says it will act on any concerns and communicate to schools and parents. "In the interim, schools are undertaking preventative measures, which includes running water for a couple of minutes at all drinking fountains and classroom faucets each morning to mitigate any trace of any potential contaminants in the water," the district stated.
Noting the water quality in Delta is amongst the best in the world, the district said there are no lead pipes in any of the schools' water systems. Buildings built prior to 1989 have copper piping and the standard practice had been to externally solder pipes with a compound that may have included lead.
Earlier this month, B.C. New Democrats called on the provincial government to implement routine mandatory water quality tests at all schools in the province to prevent children from being exposed to higher lead levels in their drinking water.
The call came after elevated levels were found in some schools in Prince Rupert.
The B.C. Teachers' Federation also joined the call for mandatory testing.
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Education wrote to school districts informing them to work with their health authorities to evaluate water quality in schools built before 1989.
