Mallett school will truck in bottled spring water for drinking
By Samantha C. DePoy
Staff Writer

FARMINGTON – Drinking water fountains at the W.G. Mallett School were shut down Monday morning after slightly elevated lead levels were discovered in the water.

Bottled water was shipped in for students and teachers.

The K-3 school had its water supply tested for lead levels over April vacation. The results were received late last Friday by school Principal Melvin Burnham and district officials.

According to the test results, four of the six samples showed lead levels that were slightly above the Environmental Protection Agency’s standard of .015 parts per million. The standard of action level, said Burnham, is “when the numbers show that you have to look into it and make some changes.”

Lead levels ranged from as high as .023 ppm (.008 ppm over the action-level), down to .009 ppm (.006 ppm below action-level). Three of the above action-level results were within .003 ppm.

“We are concerned, but we aren’t overly alarmed,” said Burnham Monday. “It’s nothing that can’t be rectified.”

According to the EPA’s Web site, elevated lead levels in drinking water are harmful, especially to young children below the age of 2 and pregnant women. Possible effects include neurological damage, stunted mental and physical development and, in extreme cases, death.

As Burnham pointed out though, the average elementary school student at Mallett probably only consumes a few sips of water a day. “The amount of water that kids drink here is pretty minimal, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that their drinking water should be good, clean water.”

The school gets its water from the town’s supply, which passed its last lead and copper level tests last July, said Tom Holt, superintendent of the Farmington Water Supply. Holt added that sodium silicate is placed in the town’s water supply, and coats the pipes so lead is not released into the water.

He and Burnham stressed that the problem has been isolated to school grounds and that the lead is entering the water somewhere between where the school hooks up to the town’s supply and the faucets in the school.

Holt is skeptical about the testing, which was done the same day that hydrants were flushed on Quebec Street, where the school is located, which may have caused the system to be “shaken up quite a bit.” Many people had dirty water in Farmington during the hydrant flushing, he said.

The pipes had also been inactive for several days, which may have led to the buildup of lead, Holt said. “They tested in the worst possible scenario,” he admitted. “There was no way the water could have passed that lead test in those conditions.”

Holt said that parents should wait until test results from testing done early this week are in, and said they will provide a more accurate picture of the water quality at the school.

The source of the lead, he said, could be anything from an old pipe to a build-up in a faucet.

Because the school has its food prepared down the road at Cascade Brook School, the kitchen’s water supply, used for washing dishes at Mallett has remained on.

“It’s a serious thing in that we know lead can be harmful when it collects in our bodies,” said Burnham. “Just like people would at their homes, we have found a problem and we are correcting it. I am glad that we found out because I want everyone to have as safe a learning environment as possible.”

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

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