Lead found in water from 21 Knox County school faucets: What parents need to know now

This year, when Knox County Schools tested faucets in several school buildings, what came out of 21 of them was a surprise: water with higher-than-acceptable levels of lead.

The school system routinely tests faucets and water fountains in all the schools. Of 946 faucets and fountains tested in 36 schools since January, 21 tested for lead levels higher than 20 parts-per-billion — 5 parts-per-billion more than Board of Education policy and state law allow.

Though that's still a minuscule amount, the federal Environment Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both maintain there is no safe level of lead in a child's blood.  

Children at highest risk

While lead isn't safe for anyone, the agencies said children are especially susceptible because it takes much less lead to do damage to a baby or child. Even low levels of lead in a child, public health experts say, can lead to behavior and learning problems; lower IQ and hyperactivity; slowed growth; hearing problems; and anemia, a condition where there aren't enough healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen to body tissue.

So it's no surprise parents were concerned when the school system, as state law and school board policy requires, sent them letters notifying them of the test results. Parents then got follow-up details from some schools — for example, Sequoyah Elementary, where a water fountain in a first-grade classroom tested above 20 ppb.

"All of the water samples collected were 'first draw' samples," Sequoyah's principal, Alisha Hinton, explained in an email to parents. "These are representative of the water dwelling in the fixture or fountain for at least 8 hours, but probably longer in the case of this fountain which was tested (in July) when school was out for the summer. The first draw sample usually represents the worst-case scenario in our school's plumbing systems."

That water fountain was removed.

But parents at other schools where faucets and fountains tested high took to social media to complain they weren't notified, despite the school system's mandate to send results by U.S. Mail within five business days.

Change in law, testing process

Until January, the school system tested schools for lead every five years, on a rotating basis. It had upgraded some fixtures about a dozen years ago to put schools in then-EPA compliance.

But in 2018, the state implemented new, specific water testing guidelines for schools, a response in part to the high lead levels found in children in Flint, Michigan. The Board of Education's concurrent policy, approved in December, requires schools in Knox County built before 1998 to twice annually test "all drinking water fountains as well as potable water sources in kitchens and other food preparation areas," and schools built after that to test every five years.

Because human skin doesn't absorb lead in water — consuming it is the only way to get lead into the body from water — only faucets from which people might drink water, by itself or mixed with something else, have to be tested. 

If testing finds lead levels of greater than 15 ppb, the school is to quit using the faucet and retest within 14 days. If the levels are greater than 20 ppb, the fixture must be removed or replaced, then follow-up testing conducted.

Knox County Schools Director of Public Affairs Carly Harrington said a school system employee oversees the testing process, but the testing itself is contracted out to Microbac Laboratories in Maryville.

"We've been proactive in water testing and in parent notification based on the state-mandated requirements, and we will continue to be so," Harrington said.

36 schools tested

As of Thursday, the school system had tested 36 schools. It found no detectable levels of lead (more than .5 ppb) in faucets in 22 of them: Ball Camp, Belle Morris, Christenberry, Lonsdale, Maynard, Mount Olive, New Hopewell, Pond Gap, South Knox and Sunnyview elementary schools; Chilhowee Intermediate; Karns and Vine middle schools; Austin-East, Bearden, Fulton and Gibbs high schools and L&N STEM Academy; and Fort Sanders, Karns Annex, Knoxville Adaptive Education Center and Sam. E. Hill.

Harrington noted that all the faucets testing higher than 20 ppb were isolated faucets in schools where most of the faucets tested fine. No school had a facility-wide reading above 20 ppb, she said.

Schools with 1-3 faucets that tested higher than 20 ppb are:

• Beaumont Magnet: Water fountain in teacher workroom removed, water fountain in Room 105 replaced. (2 of 43 faucets) 
• Blue Grass Elementary: Fountain in Room 252 removed. (1 of 35)
• Bonny Kate Elementary: Fountain in Room 318 removed; will be replaced. (1 of 23)
• Corryton Elementary: Kitchen sink faucet replaced. (1 of 10)
• Dogwood Elementary: Fountain in Room 229 replaced. (1 of 66)
• East Knox Elementary: Sink faucet in teacher workroom replaced; kitchen sink faucet removed. (2 of 21)
• Fair Garden Family Center: Fountain in Room 20 replaced. (1 of 18)
• Gap Creek Elementary: Two kitchen sink faucets replaced; one water fountain removed, will be replaced. (3 of 8)
• Karns Elementary: Fountains in rooms 417 and 108 replaced; fountain in lab turned off, will be replaced. (3 of 99)
• Mooreland Heights Elementary: Fountain in Room 225 turned off; kitchen sink faucet turned off and will be replaced. (2 of 29)
• Ridgedale Alternative: Fountain in Room 203 turned off, will be replaced. (1 of 17)
• Sequoyah Elementary: Fountain in Room 2 removed. (1 of 22)
• South-Doyle High: Kitchen sink replaced. (1 of 36)
• South-Doyle Middle: Sprayer in kitchen removed. (1 of 35)

Testing for lead outside schools

Drinking water is the most common way children can be exposed to lead, accounting for up to 20 percent of exposures, according to the FDA. But children can be exposed to lead in paint, dust, soil, air and food as well. Children with high blood levels of lead — 5 micrograms per deciliter or more — likely were exposed to more than one source, the CDC said. 

Your pediatrician or family doctor can test your child for lead levels if you're worried. (Children on TennCare already are required to have lead screenings at 12 and 24 months or, if those earlier appointments are missed, at 36 and 72 months.)

Tennessee has one of 35 health departments the CDC gives funding for lead surveillance, and it reports data on lead screenings quarterly. In 2017, the most recent year for which data is public, Tennessee screened 17.5 percent of children younger than 6 — around 85,000 children — and found 349 with lead levels greater than 5 micrograms per deciliter and 99 with lead levels greater than 10 micrograms per deciliter. The percentage of children tested and numbers of children with elevated lead levels have been fairly consistent since 2012.

In Knox County, specifically, 20.9 percent of children younger than 6 were tested in 2017; 21 had lead levels greater than 5 micrograms per deciliter, and 10 had lead levels greater than 10 micrograms per deciliter.

Lead in drinking water has no smell or taste. The government requires water utility companies to provide customers with an annual Consumer Confidence Report, which you can find online or request from your utility. If you get your water from a well, or if your house has old plumbing, you can have your water tested through a private lab.

Mayo Clinic offers more suggestions to prevent lead exposure.  CDC offers further information.