Audible grumbles turned to hushed voices as another resident of Tompkins County stood up to say what was on his mind. “You know what? I’m a little bit offended by the county health department, and anybody that says my kids have a reasonable level of lead exposure.”
Greg Goodrich was one of many concerned parents that gathered among others at Ithaca Town Hall Thursday to talk about the high levels of lead in Tompkins County schools. The meeting addressed many concerns including false testing, plans to test again, and what families impacted by the lead contamination should do.
One of the more vocal participants in the public forum was Enfield resident Greg Goodrich, who had a pile of papers with him asking for donations of reusable water bottles to help the communities affected by the lead levels.
Ithaca City School District tested the water in August and results showed elevated levels of lead. The school district decided not to disclose this information because the pipes had not been flushed before the test according to Frank Kruppa, public health director at the Tompkins County Health Department in a statement by the TC Health Department.
In January, the Ithaca City School District found that lead levels were lower, but remained higher than the actionable level appointed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA.) Tests showed the highest levels were found in Enfield Elementary School and Caroline Elementary School which were tested again on Feb. 6. The ICSD disclosed this information to the parents in late February, according to the Ithaca Journal.
The recommended level of lead in water is zero parts per billion and the actionable level is 15 parts per billion, by EPA standards. Parents of students at Caroline and Enfield are understandably worried about their children’s health with the exposure to the lead. If the lead levels are higher than 15 parts per billion , the CDC recommends taking action to lower the lead levels.
There is some doubt about the accuracy of the lead tests. Anna Kelles, a member of the county board with a background in biochemistry, expressed her frustration with the way the tests were handled in the fall and winter of 2015.
“One of the things I did understand, that I did appreciate as far as the sampling is concerned is that it did not originally follow protocol. So if you want to get an accurate estimate of what the levels are we need to resample and follow the proper protocol.”
The water systems at Caroline and Enfield were shut off at 10 p.m. the night before the water was tested. According to the EPA guidance on testing drinking fountains, “minute amounts of scrapings from the valves will produce inaccurate results showing higher than actual lead levels in water.”
Caroline and Enfield plan on re-testing the water for lead by the end of this week. There is still some debate over whether or not it is an issue of contamination or aging infrastructure, Kelles assured the public “We’ve had cases, for example, 12 cases in the last year, and whenever you get a case, you evaluate for that case and trace it back to what the source was. In all 12 of those cases the contamination came from soil and lead. None of the cases came from water. I’m not saying that water isn’t a possibility, I’m just saying that what we have found in Tompkins County is that there has never been a documented source coming from water.”
Tompkins County and New York State health departments say that children younger than six-years-old have elevated blood lead levels when at 10 micrograms per deciliter, although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) changed standard to 5 micrograms per deciliter in 2012. The Tompkins County Health Department said that no children have tested with elevated blood lead levels according to the old standards.
The lead exposure is most harmful for children under six years old and no safe blood lead level has been identified in children, according to the CDC. Lead poisoning can affect almost every organ in a person’s body, according to the EPA.
David Jacobs, chief scientist with the National Center for Healthy Housing asserted that there are practical steps to be taken, “We know how to prevent lead poisoning, it is a matter of political will and obtaining the necessary resources to prevent it.”
Families who have been exposed to lead are encouraged to talk to their primary care providers.
