Indiana district with lead scare to resume using tap water

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - A rural school district in central Indiana struggling with elevated lead levels in its water will allow students to resume drinking that water next week now that the district is taking steps state agencies suggested to reduce levels of the heavy metal, its superintendent said Thursday.

The Eastern Howard School Corp. near Kokomo stopped its 1,500 students from using tap water in the district's three schools in early February after testing found some sinks and water fountains had lead levels above the federal action level of 15 parts per billion.

Lead can cause permanent brain damage, leading to behavior problems and learning disabilities. Concerns about drinking water safety have been heightened nationwide because of Flint, Michigan's water crisis sparked by high lead levels in its water supply.

But the Howard County Health Department said in a Wednesday letter to district officials that follow-up testing and consultation with state officials and the local water utility had created a protocol for how the district can reduce its tap water's lead levels.

The health department said in its letter that the district in Greentown, about 50 miles north of Indianapolis, can now resume using its tap water "for all purposes, including consumption."

Eastern Howard School Corp.'s superintendent, Dr. Tracy Caddell, said his district was already working to implement many of those suggested steps and students and staff will be allowed to resume using nearly all the district's drinking fountains and sinks Monday.

He said maintenance staff would flush all of the district's water lines over the weekend and the district's three water service lines will thereafter be flushed each morning before students arrive to reduce lead levels in the district's tap water.

Filtration systems also will be installed in all 59 of the district's water fountains, starting first with more than three dozen fountains with the oldest water pipes, Caddell said.

"We don't anticipate, hopefully, ever having this problem again, but we're going to put these filtration systems on to make sure our parents and children feel safe moving forward," he said.

Bottled water will remain stocked in the district's three schools for anyone still apprehensive about drinking the water, until those filters are installed.

The district's water-line flushing will help sweep away lead that leaches into water lines overnight or in little-used lines, said Jennifer Sexton, Howard County's public health nursing manager.

"That daily flush is going to help get that lead that sits in there out," she said. "If those protocols are followed it will ensure the water is safe to drink."

Testing found lead water levels in the high school's infrequently used performing arts center that was in one case 150 parts per billion, but Sexton said most elevated lead levels found in district schools were far below that reading.

The highest reading found during district water sampled Feb. 9 was 33 parts per billion.

The Indiana State Department of Health worked with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and county officials to identify the lead-reduction protocols.

IDEM spokeswoman Courtney Arango said the agency also approved a permit last month allowing the Greentown Municipal Water, which supplies the district's water, to install a pumping system to begin sending phosphates into its water to inhibit lead corrosion in its water lines.

Arango said that's the first step in the utility's "corrosion control plan" required by IDEM after routine testing last year showed some homes in Greentown had elevated lead levels.

She said IDEM is continuing to monitor the utility's water supply.