A scan of testing results indicates a total of nine schools in Orangeville, Shelburne, Dufferin and Erin exceeded the federal guidelines, with testing failure rate ranging from 3 to 50 per cent. - Paul Sancya
A scan of testing results indicates a total of nine schools in Orangeville, Shelburne, Dufferin and Erin exceeded the federal guidelines, with testing failure rate ranging from 3 to 50 per cent. - Paul Sancya
Paul Sancya
A scan of testing results indicates a total of nine schools in Orangeville, Shelburne, Dufferin and Erin exceeded the federal guidelines, with testing failure rate ranging from 3 to 50 per cent. - Paul Sancya
Karen Martin-Robbins/ Metroland
Lead levels in water at Caledon public schools that exceeded the provincial standard. The testing was done this summer.
Ten schools in Caledon are ditching water fixtures daily and three taps have been shut down because one or more of its water sources tested high for lead.
In the public board, Mayfield and Humberview had multiple fixtures test high; Allan Drive Middle School along with James Bolton, Herb Campbell, and Belfountain schools each had one fixture above the Ontario Drinking Water Quality Standard for lead — which is 10 parts per billion.
In the Catholic board, Robert F. Hall and St. Cornelius each had two fixtures test high, while St. John had one; Pope John Paul II had three taps exceed the standard and one that needed to be shut down until the fixture could be replaced. Results for St. Michael were not available by press time.
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Ontario is the only province to require both schools and child-care centres to conduct annual tests for lead in drinking water.
New rules established last year require every tap used for drinking water to be tested by 2020 in schools and daycares with primary divisions, or 2022 for all other schools.
“Schools often have worse water lead than in homes, because pipes are much bigger, and the water tends to sit without use for long periods of time including weekends, vacations and summer,” said Dr. Marc Edwards, a leading expert on lead in water from Virginia Tech, who was also one of the whistleblowers on the Flint, Mich., water crisis.
He said these factors increase degradation of old infrastructure and water lead.
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Previously, schools were only required to test one tap a year.
Both school boards are ahead of schedule when it comes to testing.
Fixtures at all elementary schools in the Peel District School Board were tested last year and all middle and secondary schools this summer, according to Corey Boyle, health and safety manager with the board.
Bruce Campbell, spokesperson for the Dufferin Peel Catholic District School Board said they will be completing the required testing of all water fixtures used for drinking or for food preparation two years prior to the deadline.
Lead levels in water at Caledon public schools that exceeded the provincial standard. The testing was done this summer.
Karen Martin-Robbins/ Metroland
The test takes a sample after the fixture hasn’t been used for a minimum of six hours.
In each set of samples, a flushed sample is also taken from the fixture, meaning that water is run through the fixture for five minutes and then sampled approximately 30 minutes later.
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A water fountain in a kindergarten room at Belfountain Public School tested below the guidelines, 3.0 parts per billion, on the standing sample but high after being flushed — 21.1 parts per billion.
That fountain was shut down.
Boyle said the results at Belfountain were unusual.
“It’s impossible to say exactly what happened there but I suspect a sampling collection error,” he explained.
Once there’s been a high reading, the fixture is made inaccessible until the board’s facility services staff does an investigation of it.
“They review it in terms of any components that they suspect may have lead and they will take some corrective action,” Boyle explains.
Once any components have been changed or fixed, samples (two “good samples are required”) are taken before the tap is put back into operation.
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Boyle said the tap at Belfountain has already been sampled once and came back with acceptable lead levels. Another sample will be taken in a week and if that comes back with acceptable levels, the water fountain will be put into operation again.
Finding high lead in school water is unfortunately the rule and not the exception in Canada, said Edwards.
“In fact, I consider such reports to be good news, because it is the first step to taking decisive action to prevent harmful exposures. We cannot undo past harm, we can only prevent future harm — the schools you need to worry about are those not testing at all.”
