La Pine school restores water after new lead tests

New testing of fountains and faucets at two Bend-La Pine Schools due to slightly elevated lead levels have led to a planned restoration of water service Wednesday at La Pine Middle School. But students and staff at Bend’s Amity Creek Magnet School will be sticking to bottled water until one classroom’s fixtures are replaced over the Thanksgiving break, officials said Tuesday.

Last Wednesday, La Pine Middle School Principal Robi Phinney and Amity Creek Principal Andy Slavin received lab results showing slightly elevated lead levels in the water coming from (at La Pine) a drinking fountain in the FAN (Family Access Network) storage room, and a drinking fountain at an Amity Creek classroom.

That day, both schools shut off all of the fountains in the buildings and brought in bottled drinking water, the principals said in an update sent home to parents Wednesday. Last Thursday, both schools retested all of their water fixtures and sent samples to a lab.

At La Pine Middle School, the retest of all drinking fountains and food prep sinks again came back within Environmental Protection Agency guidelines. The originally affected location now reports being within the EPA guidelines of 9 parts per billion, Phinney wrote.

“Since the space has not been used as a classroom for many years, the fountain and faucet have been removed,” Phinney added, advising parents that water service will be restored to the school Wednesday and use of fountains and food preparation sinks will resume.

At Amity Creek, during the second sample water draw, staff went under the sinks and rotated the shut-off valves on and off, Slavin said the valves “are rarely, if ever used, so we wanted to agitate the system to rule out, or possibly rule in that the lead content might be in the drinking fountain fixtures and/or in the under-cabinet shut-off valves.”

Slavin told parents Tuesday that the lab results showed higher lead levels than the first samples, “leading us to believe that the shut-off valves, under the sinks, contain lead particles.” So the school will replace the fixtures, including the shut-off valves, over the Nov. 21-25 Thanksgiving break.

Once the new drinking fountains, faucets and under-sink valves are in place, the school plans to “thoroughly flush the water source and retest the water,” Slavin wrote. If new lab results confirm lead levels are within EPA guidelines, the water service will be restored. In the meantime, Amity’s fountains will stay off and students will be provided bottled water.