Carrie Blackmore Smith

csmith@enquirer.com

Test results are back for lead in the water at Cincinnati Public Schools, and it's not an A+.

Greater Cincinnati Water Works Director Cathy Bailey wrote that results "appear to be higher than expected" in an Aug. 5 letter to Superintendent Mary Ronan, but Ronan says the district hadn't known what to expect.

Results showed lead levels fall beneath federal limits at all schools, but Water Works is recommending a more comprehensive review and for the district to consider doing a plumbing profile in schools where lead was detected.

The initial report did not include Hyde Park School but it has since been tested and one sample showed a small amount of lead in the water.

Fourteen of the 55 schools' tests showed there was no lead detected in any of the samples.

The results being released now are a precursor to more aggressive testing by Greater Cincinnati Water Works.

CPS will become a willing guinea pig, Ronan said, and become one of the first districts in the region to extensively test its water, if it means helping keep lead out of the developing bodies of Cincinnati children.

See all the lead results by school here.

Flint's lead crisis got America's attention

The public health crisis continuing to simmer in Flint, Michigan, and other parts of the country, including Sebring, Ohio, brought America's attention to lead in our water.

In Flint, many residents were poisoned by lead-laced water after the water district switched its water source to the Flint River and did not follow safety regulations. Health officials know that lead has no meaningful use in the body and causes health problems.

Greater Cincinnati Water Works has said it would like to someday get all of the lead out of the system that serves Cincinnati and many of its surrounding communities – a humongous goal because Cincinnati has roughly 20,000 known lead pipes.

Water and health officials suggested starting with schools. While Water Works is required to regularly check some of its residential customers, there is no requirement to test schools.

After this limited testing, Water Works has recommended that CPS test water to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 3T's for Reducing Lead in Drinking Water in Schools guidelines.

That process, collecting and analyzing more than 2,000 samples – 40-45 in each school – will begin soon. Water Works has offered to analyze the samples free of charge. CPS said yes.

The results and why removing lead matters

At any given time there are about five children suffering from lead poisoning in Dr. Nicholas Newman's Environmental Health and Lead Clinic at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

Children are most susceptible to this harmful chemical element because they absorb more of it and lead has an adverse effect on their growing brains and bodies.

Of the lead kids ingest, 50 percent is absorbed into their bones; while adults absorb about 10 percent, clinic Director Newman told The Enquirer earlier this year.

Lead can cause developmental problems and is capable of causing cancer. Doctors believe the leading cause is lead paint dust and other forms of lead, not water, but it accumulates in the body all the same.

Water hadn't been tested in CPS schools for some 20 years.

The U.S. EPA's 3Ts guideline for a maximum level of lead before action must be taken by the school and the Water District is 20 ppb, but a Flint working group has determined 5 ppb is a level worthy of concern.

Gamble Montessori High School, Cheviot School, Covedale School, Mt. Airy School, Pleasant Hill Academy and Spencer Education Center all had at least one reading over 5 ppb.

"We are sitting nicely with everything under 15 parts per billion," said CPS Environmental Health and Safety Coordinator Cynthia Eghbalnia.

Eghbalnia and Ronan said CPS is thankful for the partnership with the experts at Water Works and the Cincinnati Health Department, and plan to follow any advice and recommendations they have as the process unfolds.

As an aside, there were some higher samples that were determined to be inaccurate.

The seven highest test results, as high as 60 ppb, were determined to be collected incorrectly by school officials.

Bill Moehring, chief operations officer for CPS, told The Enquirer before the testing that he believed there would be very little lead in the system, because all of the schools have been renovated or replaced since 2003.

The service lines to the schools aren't lead Lead isn't in the lines to the school and the water comes to the school lead-free, Water Works said, so it's getting picked up somewhere in the schools.

What happened in Hyde Park?

In it's initial review, Water Works tested all but one building: Hyde Park School on Edwards Road.

But tests have since been completed and results were released Friday. Two of the three samples detected no lead. A third recorded 1.06 ppb, a very small amount.

This occurred because Water Works believed Hyde Park School – the oldest school in the district – was the only school with a lead service pipe when this process began in the spring.

CPS officials said the district decided to sample the water and send it to an independent lab to get a quicker response than Water Works could provide. The tests came back "nondetect" meaning they did not detect lead.

Water Works tests showed some lead in one sample.

Water Works also checked the pipe on both ends and is now satisfied that Hyde Park does not have a lead service line.

As for all of the other schools, more extensive testing will begin in buildings with the highest levels of lead and then at schools that were renovated, Eghbalnia and Ronan said.

New schools should have new fixtures that are lead free and they will be checked last.

Letter from Greater Cincinnati Water Works to CPS