Lead in School Water: Did Walker County District Leadership Cover It Up?

Testing for lead in the water is good, hiding the results from parents, teachers, and even the utility providing the water is bad.

I’ll spare you the mystery: it sure looks like it.

***UPDATE:

1. Walker County Board of Education meeting will be 6/19/23 at 6:00.

2. An email I sent to the Walker County Board of Education is posted at the end of this article.

Across the country over the last few years, governments, the media, and the general public have become much more concerned and educated about lead in their drinking water. Lead is a toxic metal that can be harmful to human health, even at low exposure levels. It is especially dangerous for children. While many states now require mandatory testing of water at schools, Georgia does not.¹

In the face of legislative apathy, the Georgia Department of Education launched 'Clean Water for Georgia Kids'. Partnering with RTI International, a non-profit research institute, the initiative is an optional program for schools and child-care centers to test for lead and offer remediation and removal guidance. ²

Walker County Schools signed up. However, only three elementary schools were tested in late 2022, a fourth was tested in April 2023. To understand the results data, it is essential to understand some basic things about the conversation. First, lead levels in water are customarily reported in parts per billion (ppb).

For example, at the height of the Flint, Michigan water crisis, median water lead levels were 3.5 ppb, according to the Virginia Tech Flint study team.³ 

Regulators also discuss lead levels in this way which is where confusion begins. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state agencies establish 'action levels' for contaminants such as lead. These are administrative in nature and set a threshold that triggers mandatory remedial measures. For lead, The EPA action level is currently 15 ppb. Many states have established action levels far lower than this EPA level first set decades ago.

Yet, we must tread with caution here. This action level is not a health level. Far from it. The EPA also designates a Maximum Contaminant Level Goal (MCLG) for human health of zero ppb for lead.

This is important to remember.  There is no acceptable range for lead when it comes to human health.⁴

Finally, the data⁵ shows the tap type and the location within the school as well as the lead level and analysis date. Under tap type, the term “bubbler” is a type of drinking fountain. The link to the full dataset is posted at the end of the article.

Chattanooga Valley Elementary

Fairyland Elementary

Naomi Elementary

Stone Creek Elementary

Remediation and Removal

When I came across these results, I was surprised that I had not heard anything about them sooner. I do not typically “break” news such as this, but after scouring the social media and websites associated with the school systems and individual schools, I found no notification of the results whatsoever.

I reached out to Walker County Superintendent Damon Raines for further details. He said leaders at the individual schools were notified but did not specify the extent they were made aware. He also said the school system followed the guidance from the testing agency for remediation but that only a few taps required action. I take issue with this. Notice only a few taps had levels above 15 ppb but remember there is no safe level of lead for human health. The guidance from the testing provider is not an enforceable requirement and is vague in the range of remediation. For instance, taps with “Any detected lead” there are three bullet points listed:

• follow clean water habits

• Remove sources of lead (with a subsection about finding, removing the lead sources, and filtration options),

• Stop using taps for cooking and drinking. Post a designated use sign (e.g., “Water Play Only” or “Handwashing Only”)

In a follow-up email from Superintendent Raines, he relies on the word recommended to seemingly justify himself. All levels of response were simply recommendations. The guidance is nonbinding.

We discussed Chattanooga Valley ES specifically today, so I will use their report as my example.  WCS implemented low-cost mitigation efforts for any water source tested scoring over 0.1 ppb (parts per billion) in this building.  The Program Instructions state mitigation efforts are recommended for a score of over 0.1ppb to 5ppb, and strongly recommended for a score of over 5ppb to 15ppb.  WCS implemented all mitigation efforts for a score of over 15ppb, completed the required retesting, and submitted a score within the allowable range.

It is important to note that the term "allowable range" was coined solely by Superintendent Raines and is not found in the RTI International document. It is widely recognized that there is no safe level of lead exposure for human health. In our discussion, the remediation actions were of taps that surpassed the state action level of 15 ppb. This point needs additional clarification. 

Additionally, from the same document one of the bold points schools are recommended to follow is highlighted in the screenshot below.

At Chattanooga Valley Elementary, 43 taps had levels of lead above 0.1. This was every tap tested. It begs an important question: At any time since January 2023, have any staff or students at the four schools tested used or drank water from a tap with before remediation efforts (either by removing the lead source or filtration)? According to my conversation with the superintendent, the answer would be yes.

This matters because lead is unsafe at any level but also because the sample results are snapshots. The results should be viewed as warning alerts, not as falling in some non-existent acceptable range. A score of 0.5 on a drinking fountain does not indicate 0.5 is the average lead level from that particular drinking fountain or that it is the maximum or minimum level. It indicates that lead is present. The nature of how lead leaches or flakes into drinking water is that it is always happening until it is removed. Filters are a low-cost method of remediation, but the ultimate goal should be the removal of the sources of lead. A tap with a low score at one point in time is misleading because it could just as easily produce a drop of water when little Johnny wants a drink that contains a high concentration of lead which would produce a much higher ppb score and a toxic dose of lead. The follow-up tests that occurred in January are evidence of this fact as the scores were indeed lower.

Notification and Communication

When I learned of the results, my first instinct was to contact the water utility. For Chattanooga Valley Elementary, which had the highest average levels and every tap with a level above zero, the water provider is Walker County Water and Sewerage Authority. Much to my surprise, when I spoke to WCWSA board chairman (also county commission chairman) Shannon Whitfield, it was clear that it was the first time he was even aware of any of this. How is that even possible?

Given that the action level for water utilities is 15ppb on a system-wide basis, there is simply no plausible explanation for the school system not contacting the water providers for the schools when each school had individual taps with lead levels well in excess of the action level the utility follows.

The most staggering fact about this debacle is that parents and students were told nothing. In my conversation with the superintendent, I asked whether school staff, parents, and students were notified of the results. Leadership at each school was told, not parents or the entire staff. This is unconscionable. Even if a case could be made that the taps below a certain level were safe (it can’t), it is without question that parents should have been notified that lead was found to be present in each tap and at what level. Would some parents have wanted to be informed? I believe so. Some might have wanted their child to have a blood level test after learning the results. Additionally, consider this: would you willingly drink from a fountain that is known to have lead?

Not knowing about lead in school drinking water is no one’s fault. In fact, Superintendent Raines is to be commended for actually testing at all (several Walker Schools still haven’t been tested though). Many schools across the state and country have not tested at all. A positive lead test result might well cause a public uproar and fear. One of the common threads in the tragic parade of water crises afflicting the nation year after year is that there is never a reason to conceal or fail to disclose anything when it concerns drinking water.

The failure to notify⁶ anyone other than a few employees of the school system at any point since the testing might be regarded by some as remarkably poor leadership, others may regard it as evidence of a cover-up while others may view it as evidence of civil or even criminal negligence.⁷

Some say tomayto, some say tomahto.

For what it’s worth, if you as an individual citizen and landlord were to fail to notify your tenants that the taps in their rental have tested positive for lead, you would likely be sued by tenants and government regulators would support your prosecution.⁸ At the same time, government employees at various agencies at federal state, and local levels enjoy protections for similar instances of inaction and nondisclosure. The numerous and continuing episodes of polluted drinking water around the country continue to show that a tendency to turn a blind eye, avoid responsibility, and deflect blame is maddeningly pervasive in government entities. School districts across the country have failed to notify parents, staff, and students when lead or other contaminants are found in school drinking water.⁹

What Now?

There is a school board meeting next week. My guess is there will be standing room only. Get there early. The first question that should be asked is: when was the school board made aware and how much were they told?

Regarding the issue of local water utilities and lead, Chairman Whitfield expressed concern about the inadequacy of current testing requirements in Georgia. He pointed out that the state's testing protocol involves insufficient sample collection and only takes place once every three years. He also stated that the Walker County Water & Sewer Authority has no lead pipes in Authority’s distribution system. 

He went on to add, “All water systems in Georgia have been advised that over the next five years, through the Georiga Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA) state and federal dollars will be made available to replace lead service lines from the meter to the customer’s home or business.  Currently, Walker County Water and Sewer Authority is working through the process of inspecting and creating an inventory of every service line to determine what type of pipe material is being used by every customer.  Once this process is completed we will be able to apply for these grant funds for lead service line replacement to assist our customers.”   This is a good idea and one that is long overdue.

As for the legislature, action is definitely needed. District 1 Representative Mike Cameron added “The safety of our children should be our highest priority. Based on the test results for the four Walker County Schools, I believe all schools should be tested and the results communicated to parents and staff at the earliest possible time.”

Other Districts

Dade County Schools tested every school in the district this past April and has also engaged an outside firm for water quality safety for years. The superintendent spoke to media outlets about the testing and lead in drinking water safety earlier this year. The results were recently made available online.

Catoosa County Schools did not participate but contracted with a company to provide water testing and safety. When I reached Superintendent Nix, he said he would make the data available next week.

I usually don't request readers to share articles, but I am making an exception with this one. It's important that this information gets out.

To gain a better understanding of the issue, I highly recommend watching this video presentation. The speaker¹⁰ is an expert in this field, an engineer and professor who uncovered both the Flint water crisis and a similar event that took place in Washington DC a decade prior.

Email to Walker County Board of Education

Sources:

1. EPA

2. GADOE

3. https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/84385/acs.est.8b00791.pdf?sequence=1#:~:text=The%20median%20WLL%20was%203.5,%E2%89%A51%20%CE%BCg%2FL)

4. https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/138/1/e20161493/52600/Prevention-of-Childhood-Lead-Toxicity?autologincheck=redirected

5. https://www.cleanwaterforuskids.org/georgia/data

6. Why is it so easy for officials to cover up a water crisis?

7. https://www.americanscientist.org/article/the-hand-in-hand-spread-of-mistrust-and-misinformation-in-flint

8. "This case sends a message to landlords that they have a responsibility to warn their tenants of known lead hazards in their apartments," said Thomas M. DiBiagio, United States Attorney for the District of Maryland.

9. Delaware schools waited a year to alert public to elevated lead levels

10. Marc Edwards