GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. - After finding elevated levels of lead at three Guilford County Schools (GCS) over the summer, Greensboro's Water Resources Department held a meeting for parents on testing follow-up results, and the plans moving forward.
GCS held a meeting for Southeast Middle School parents on Thursday to answer questions and describe the process of flushing the lead out of the system.
Michael Borchers, Assistant Director of Water Resources says after testing more than one hundred sites over the summer, three schools came back with elevated levels of lead. Using guidelines from the Environment Protection Agency, officials were able to find the source of the lead - remove it - then, flush the system and retest.
However, this was just a preliminary test - not a test from every faucet and pipe.
"The technical guidance document does say you should do an inventory, and you should sample all of the fixtures, but again we wanted a preliminary investigation and preliminary look," said Borchers.
For Southeast Middle, he says that source was a faucet coming into the schools food preparation and kitchen area. Follow-up testing showed the lead levels were down to below the limit of 20 parts per billion (ppb) - original levels had been at 194 ppb. The district says back in the 70s and early 80s, some of these fixtures contained lead. The city says that faucet's been replaced.
At Thursday's meeting, parents grilled the district about how many more faucets or fixtures could still have it.
"We don't know," said GCS Chief Operations Officer, "We don't have a count yet. We are developing that inventory. The three schools that had higher levels of contaminants are obviously the priority schools. We want to be able to do that inventory, we want to get in and make any kind of faucet replacement as quickly as possible."
Parents asked even more questions, wishing they'd known about this problem sooner.
"There are still quite a few outstanding questions that need to be answered. Two of the main things that parents, community and staff are going to want to know - Was the water safe before the testing was done? And is it safe now?" asked Trina Jackson.
Now, the city will figure out which fixtures and faucets have lead, and replace them. The district says it could take a while. It's important to note testing schools for lead is not a federal, state, or even local requirement. This was a proactive measure, and the first time Guilford County has done these tests
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