Kalispell Public Schools have completed testing drinking water for lead in its six elementary schools and middle school, and mitigation is nearly complete, according to District Superintendent Micah Hill.

In the six elementary schools combined, about 253 water fixtures required the district to take action. Mitigation is currently underway at Kalispell Middle School.

Next summer, testing will take place at Flathead and Glacier high schools and Linderman Education Center. Other district facilities where drinking water is available will also be tested.

Under a state rule that went into effect in January 2020, Montana schools are required to test all fixtures that may “reasonably provide water for human consumption or for food preparation,” such as drinking fountains, water bottle refill stations and sinks. This is in effort to reduce lead levels in schools’ drinking water. Lead accumulates in the body over time. Young children are more vulnerable to lead than adults and may experience health problems at lower exposure levels.

Schools must take action when lead concentration levels are at a threshold of 5 to 15 parts per billion (ppb), according to the rule. This may include fixing a fixture, replacing it or removing it. All water fixtures with lead concentration levels at 15 ppb and above must immediately be removed from service.

In visualizing what 5 ppb looks like, which is referred to as the action level, Greg Montgomery, who oversees the Lead Reduction in Schools’ Drinking Water program for the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, said to think of five gallons in a billion-gallon pool.

The presence of lead in drinking water is primarily an internal plumbing issue when pipes, faucets or fixtures containing lead, corrode. If water is corrosive and sits in plumbing with lead solder, for example, the heavy metal may leach into the water. How corrosive water is may also change over time. Temperature and amount of wear in pipes may factor into those changes, for example.

LAST SUMMER, Hedges Elementary was the first school in the state to receive lead testing results under the rule. Water samples from 36 fixtures showed elevated lead levels of 6 up to 31 ppb and mitigation measures taken.

Since then, test results from the district’s remaining elementary schools — Edgerton, Elrod, Peterson, Rankin and Russell — have been posted at www.sd5.k12.mt.us. Tina Malkuch, owner of Safewater Testing Simplified, conducted the tests.

At Edgerton, water samples taken from 68 fixtures showed elevated lead concentration levels, with the highest at 19 ppb. Sixteen of those fixtures were immediately disconnected.

At Elrod, water samples from 47 fixtures showed lead concentration levels ranging from 6 up to 58 ppb. One outlier, a sink, had a lead concentration level of 109 ppb. Malkuch said this drinking fountain had not been used for quite some time and labeled “out of order,” but was included in testing to have the data.

Of those 47 fixtures at Elrod, 17 were immediately disconnected. Filters were added to 17 other fixtures and 13 fixtures were labeled “not for drinking.”

At Peterson, water samples from 55 fixtures showed lead concentration levels of 5 up to 26 ppb. Of these fixtures, 19 were immediately disconnected. Twenty fixtures were labeled “not for drinking” and 16 fixtures had filters added.

One drinking fountain was replaced at Rankin, the district’s newest elementary building, when it tested at 7 ppb. A bathroom sink, which tested at 5 ppb, had its filter cleaned.

At Russell, water samples from 47 fixtures showed lead concentration levels ranging from 5 up to 30 ppb. Of that number, 12 fixtures were immediately disconnected. Sixteen fixtures were labeled “not for drinking” and 19 fixtures had filters added.

Most disconnected fixtures have been — or are — set to be removed and replaced or have filters installed. Once mitigated, fixtures are retested. When they test below the action level, schools will then retest a year later.

THE TESTING mandate was part of broader revisions to the Administrative Rules of Montana regarding school health, which hadn’t been updated since 1986, the year the federal Safe Drinking Water Act was amended.

Previously, testing drinking water for lead was voluntary for Montana schools that received water from regulated public water systems and there are no federal laws. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations used for testing municipal water supplies require action be taken when concentration levels reach a maximum of 15 ppb. Water samples to determine concentration levels in municipal water supplies include taps in residences, but does not include schools under the federal Lead and Copper Rule.

Without an established standard for what a “safe” level of lead in schools’ drinking water, the EPA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agree that “no safe blood lead level in children has been identified,” and even a low level of lead in a child’s blood could lead to behavior, learning, IQ, growth, hearing and hyperactivity issues. Exposure has also been linked to damage in the brain, kidneys, liver and bones, according to the EPA, CDC and World Health Organization.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the nonprofit Environment Montana Research and Policy Center recommend setting the bar at 1 ppb.

However, there are limits to detection and testing accuracy. The testing method used to determine how much lead is in the water is not reliably accurate below 5 ppb, according to the Department of Environmental Quality, which is why the state set this threshold as the action level, in addition to considering the health effects of lead exposure in children.

Montana schools have a December 2021 deadline to test drinking water for lead. Schools with fixtures testing below the action threshold are required to test drinking water for lead once every three years.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com