The contractor hired to test water for lead in the Portland and Salem-Keizer school districts is not following the procedure recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
That could skew results, EPA officials said Friday.
Last month, in response to growing concern about lead in drinking water, state health and education officials told school districts statewide to test all of their taps this summer.
Lead test results released by the schools could be even higher with this testing protocol.
The Oregon Health Authority told districts to follow the procedures detailed in the EPA’s 104-page guidance document titled “3Ts for Reducing Lead in Drinking Water in Schools.”
It calls for water to sit in the plumbing overnight, or for eight to 18 hours, before samples are drawn.
Contractor TRC Environmental said that means that the building’s plumbing should be flushed eight to 12 hours before testing, to ensure no water has been in the pipes longer than that.
“It’s the recommendation from the Environmental Protection Agency,” Victoria Shepersky, senior industrial hygienist with TRC Environmental said Wednesday.
But that’s not the correct interpretation, the EPA said in a written response to the Statesman Journal’s questions.
“The 3Ts guidance does not recommend any pre-sampling activities that are not part of the schools existing maintenance program, as those activities would prevent the samples from being representative of the drinking water provided to the students,” the EPA said.
Flushing a building’s pipes is one of the measures EPA recommends to reduce lead in drinking water, so samples after flushing could be lower than they would be during routine use.
“If a school does not flush as a part of their regular maintenance program, they should not be flushing before conducting 3Ts sampling," the EPA said.
Dave Leland, Oregon Drinking Water Program manager, said the reverse also could be true.
“Flushing could give you big numbers, if you flush it really hard. It can blast off particles,” he said.
But testing during the summer, without flushing, also could give misleading results, Leland said. That’s because some outlets may not have been used for a month or more.
So the state’s directive to schools to test this summer is somewhat problematic, he said.
For that reason OHA is not concerned about the deviation from EPA recommendations.
“People can come up with lots of questions that aren’t totally answered,” Leland said. “I think people are doing the best they can.”
The Salem-Keizer School District began testing July 14 and expects to finish by Aug. 13.
Its sampling protocol calls for flushing all outlets to be sampled, except drinking fountains, for at least 20 minutes. Drinking fountains will be flushed for one minute. The district said it is flushing the plumbing because water has potentially been stagnant in the system for several weeks during the summer break.
"We were very diligent and careful in working with our contractor to develop the flushing protocols," Mike Wolfe, the district's chief operations officer, said. "We're confident in what we're doing and why we're doing it."
In Portland Public Schools, the question of flushing plumbing systems before testing is a “hot topic,” spokeswoman Courtney Westling said.
TRC Environmental finished sampling all 80-plus buildings in the district in early July, but the company has not provided the district with a final copy of the testing protocol, Westling said.
“I’m sure TRC had one. I don’t have the document. It wasn’t in final form because we have a second set of consultants that have come in since,” she said.
The protocol did include flushing plumbing, Westling said.
Consultant CH2M Hill has been hired to assess the testing results and recommend whether any tests should be repeated, she said.
Meanwhile, Oregon suspended TRC Environmental’s contractor’s license July 12 because the company failed to provide proof of insurance.
The company reinstated its license Friday after questions from the Statesman Journal. But it could not legally perform construction work during that time, said Laurie Hall, licensing manager for the state Construction Contractors Board.
That wasn’t a problem for Salem-Keizer’s testing program, Wolfe said, because the district’s contract with the company is not construction-related.
The company will map all of the fixtures in the building, provide training to district employees on flushing plumbing, develop the sampling plan, collect the samples, subcontract with testing laboratories and report the results. But it won’t perform construction work, Wolfe said.
You can reach Tracy Lowe at tloew@statesmanjournal.com, 503-399-6779 or follow at Twitter.com/Tracy_Loew. The Statesman Journal is a partner of KGW News.
