With all the information and discussion in the media lately regarding lead in drinking water at schools around British Columbia built prior to 1990, it has given me, a mother, some concern and questions about water quality at schools in New Westminster. I have also heard from a few parents while out door knocking that their kids have been instructed to run the water at the high school before drinking from the fountains and felt the need to get to the bottom of this. There are 8 schools in New Westminster (9 if you count the 2 wings of NWSS) that were built prior to 1990.
I reviewed the test results to New Westminster schools (done in March of 2017) via the Vancouver Sun article and database.
According to the Vancouver Sun reporter, the provincial testing was mandated to be done on running water (water that has been running for 2 minutes or more prior to test samples being taken). The potential problem with this type of testing is that many of the tests done in other school districts were above maximum allowable limit* on static water (water that had been sitting over night in the pipes or even for a few hours during the day) while coming back below the allowable limit on running water from the same source.
There is no information on the Schools New West website that a search could produce with regards to test results or how testing was done (stagnant or running water, or both). I will be following up with an email and/or phone call to determine the type of testing and will update when I have more information and encourage the district to share this information on their website for parents to view. In the meantime, parents deserve to be informed when it comes to the safety and well-being of their children.
Results for each of the schools from the Vancouver Sun database are as follows:
Connaught Elementary
Drinking Fountain Hallway – 0.00100
Staffroom sink – 0.00200
FW Howay Elementary
Room 101 – 0.000000
Water main entry – 0.001000
Hume Park Elementary
Drinking fountain hallway – 0.000000
Sink Classroom – 0.001000
Lord Kelvin Elementary
Custodian room across from 116 – 0.000000
Kitchen/gym – 0.002000
Water main entry – 0.001000
Massey Wing NWSS
Drinking fountain hallway – 0
Drinking fountain hallway – 0
Pearson Wing NWSS
Bottle filler fountain hallway – 0.000000
Drinking fountain hallway – 0.001000
Queen Elizabeth Elementary
Drinking fountain hallway – 0.001000
Drinking fountain room 24 – 001000
Richard McBride Elementary
Drinking fountain hallway – 0.000000
Staffroom sink – 0.001000
Tweedsmuir Elementary
Medical room sink hallway – 0.000000
Staffroom sink – 0.009000
Testing at New Westminster schools seems to point to positive results that are below acceptable Canadian standards but, as a parent, I would like clarification regarding whether the testing was done on stagnant or running water and whether we will be testing on a sample of drinking fountains at all schools as well as sinks. Our district should, and likely does, have a plan in place and this should be communicated to parents.
I believe firmly that parents deserve to be involved in the discussions concerning student safety. Open lines of communication, prompt sharing of information and open dialogue will only serve to prevent confusion, rumors and misinformation from spreading.