In recent tests by the school district at Ocean Beach Elementary, water was found at 5 sites with lead that exceeded local standards. Parents were reportedly informed last week of the report results.
Water standards at San Diego Unified School District for lead are 5 parts-per-billion (ppb) (this is a targeted goal) and the District requires action to be taken if lead is found at 5 ppb or higher. This is in comparison with State and Federal guidelines which require action to be taken if lead is found in drinking water at levels of 15 parts-per-billion (ppb) or higher.
According to the December 14, 2018 report, sites that exceeded the standard included:
- Drinking fountain for classrooms 20 and 21;
- drinking fountain – Administration, auditorium, cafeteria, kitchen rooms 1-14, classroom 8, south wall;
- faucet – administration, auditorium, cafeteria, kitchen rooms 1-14, work room, west wall;
- drinking fountain -administration, auditorium, cafeteria, kitchen rooms 1-14, classroom 5, east wall;
- drinking fountain – kindergarten rooms K01-K02 11 – 13 Building exterior, south wall .
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
“Parents at Ocean Beach got a flier telling them to send a filled reusable water bottle to school every day with their child — a sign of the strange times we live in. One of the wealthiest cities in American can’t guarantee its citizens safe drinking water.
Still, school officials believe they can trace their lead problems back to plumbing inside schools rather than problems with the city’s own system. That probably won’t provide much relief to parents, but it does suggest there is not a widespread public health crisis. ” From Voice of San Diego https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/science-environment/environment-report-citys-big-lead-revelation-doesnt-seem-to-be-impacting-schools/
This is an absolute outrage. How many hundreds of thousands of kids have been poisoned by drinking the water at that school? As the VOSD article points out there is no acceptable level of lead in a child’s developing body. How many more schools have the same situation? Shame on SDUSD for allowing this to go unrecognized for so long.
Obviously they need to fix this problem, but the kids aren’t being “poisoned.”
Kids in the 1970s on average had about 40 times the blood levels of kids today. Short term exposure from damaged pipes before they are fixed isn’t harmful. And as the article and linked report show, every single tap at the school are safe under state/federal standards, and most meet the City’s stricter standard or are just barely above it.