Tests find lead in 93 drinking water fixtures at Hawaii public schools

Elevated concentrations of lead were found in 93 public school faucets and drinking fountains in testing across Hawaii over the past several months.

The compromised water fixtures were taken out of commission, according to state officials, while monitoring and testing continues under a national effort that started here in February to test drinking water sources for lead at public schools and child care centers.

Testing at 58 schools and 70 child care facilities in Hawaii, Maui and Kauai counties has been completed so far, according to a news release from the departments of Education, Health and Human Services.

To date, 93 of the 2,232 sampled taps at schools show elevated concentrations of lead above the project action level of 15 parts per billion, while four of the 100 sampled taps at child care centers had results above the action level.

The findings translate to elevated lead being found in about 4% of the water samples collected so far.

Michael Miyahira, acting branch chief of the Department of Health’s Safe Drinking Water Branch, said schools and child care facilities were notified immediately after test results were known.

“We would like to assure the community that taps that had elevated levels of lead will not be used for drinking or food preparation until the problem is fixed,” Miyahira said in the release.

Testing on Oahu began in mid-July, and results will be available on a rolling basis.

Lead is a heavy metal found naturally in the environment but historically used in the manufacture of such things as pipes. When lead finds its way into the human body, it can harm the brain and nervous system. Long-term effects of childhood lead exposure include problems with learning, attention and behavior as well as anemia and other health problems.

Concern about lead in drinking water was amplified in the U.S. in 2015 after the population of Flint, Mich., was found to have been exposed to high levels of lead leaching from old water pipes.

Hawaii’s public schools had never been comprehensively tested for lead in drinking water before, but the state was able to obtain a $222,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant to identify sources of lead in drinking water in schools and child care facilities.

Initial results indicate that faucet fixtures are the problem in most cases, Miyahira said, but follow-up testing should reveal whether the problem is the individual fixture or the plumbing behind the wall.

Historically, regulated water systems in Hawaii have not shown lead contamination.

The Department of Education said it is creating a plan to replace affected fixtures or evaluate the plumbing of schools where results show elevated lead levels.

While 4% of sampled taps indicated results above the action level so far, comparable projects on the mainland have had rates of about 5% to 6%, officials said.

The current phase of this project will test 106 public elementary schools and 123 Department of Human Services- licensed child care facilities, which were selected based on EPA criteria.

An application was submitted to the EPA for additional funding to test the remaining 73 elementary schools and 30 public charter schools in phase 2 of the project, which is expected to begin next summer.

Because lead is harmful to children even in small amounts, schools and child care centers with lead concentrations below 15 ppb have been provided strategies to minimize lead exposure, such as daily flushing of the water, using certified lead-free filters or turning the tap into a hand wash-only station.

SCHOOL WATER TESTING

Find more information and results at health.hawaii.gov/WIIN.