School District 72 is saying that the drinking water in its schools is safe.
SD72 is reacting after Global News found that five schools in Campbell River had higher levels of lead concentration than the Health Canada recommendation of five parts per billion (ppb).
They were Discovery Passage Elementary, Ecole Phoenix, Pinecrest Elementary, Carihi Secondary, and Surge Narrows School.
The highest was Discovery Passage School at a threshold of 100 percent, based on one test done in March of 2016; the school was closed later that same year.
Discovery Passage School’s random sampling was from the sink in one classroom.
The district said the report does “not account for mitigation efforts that have occurred since the test results were taken.”
The report revealed high concentrations of lead in several schools across Canada, based on test results from between 2016 and 2019.
It also applied new Health Canada recommendations that were changed in March 2019 from 10ppb to 5 ppb as the maximum acceptable limit for lead concentration in drinking water.
SD72 says that since 2016, its health and safety department has conducted water testing annually on all of its schools and facilities on a three-year cycle.
“The Ministry of Education requires that all schools have their water tested by December 2019, a target which the district is well on track to meet,” the district said in a release.
SD72 said it uses the Random Daytime (RDT) sampling protocol recommended by the Vancouver Island Health Authority to capture typical exposures including potential exposure to particulate lead.
The district said all results are reported to the Vancouver Island Health Authority and the Ministry of Education, as well as to the Board of Education at a public board meeting.
SD72 points out that École Phoenix Middle School, Carihi Secondary and Pinecrest Elementary schools have all had water fountains that were identified to be above public health regulations for lead, taken out of commission and replaced with bottle fillers.
The district said that “as standard practice,” it performed another set of tests as soon as the new bottle fillers were installed to ensure that it had remedied the concern and all tested well below the threshold.
Regarding Surge Narrows School, the district is questioning the results cited in the investigative report, as the school had five random samplings done in May 2016 and all came back within the threshold.
“The health and safety of students and staff is always our top priority and that includes ensuring that every aspect of our learning environment, right down to the water students and staff drink, is clean and safe,” said superintendent of schools, Dr. Jeremy Morrow.
“Our testing, maintenance and mitigation efforts ensure that we take quick action to remedy any areas of concern and we are happy to work with, and comply with, any and all guidelines from the Health Authority.”
