Lead In The Water

Portland School Leaders Confronted With Notice, Health Questions

By Rob Manning (OPB)
Portland, Oregon June 1, 2016 9:47 p.m.
A covered drinking fountain is wrapped in plastic at Llewellyn Elementary in Southeast Portland. Portland Public Schools shut off water to all of its schools following the discovery of high lead levels in the water at two buildings in the district. Students are being provided bottled water.

A covered drinking fountain is wrapped in plastic at Llewellyn Elementary in Southeast Portland. Portland Public Schools shut off water to all of its schools following the discovery of high lead levels in the water at two buildings in the district. Students are being provided bottled water.

Bradley W. Parks / OPB

The recent discoveries of lead-tainted drinking water at Portland schools has parents demanding more information about lead — and more quickly.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR:

Recent revelations about elevated lead levels at two PPS schools first became public through the media. Willamette Week later reported on a database of reported high lead levels at schools dating back years, most of which hadn't been previously reported publicly. OPB has reported that the district has routinely warned school administrators not to drink water from sinks, due to potential lead exposure, though parents and staff say they didn't know about those warnings.

At the first of two community meetings planned on the water situation this week, a parent pressed administrators for details on what the district actually does when it finds high lead levels in drinking water.

Chief Operating Officer Tony Magliano said that facilities workers would typically communicate with the school principal and with the person who prompted the testing.

Related: Parents Grill Superintendent Smith Over Lead Lapses At Portland Schools

“That’s been how they’ve communicated between their work and the school," Magliano said. "So they’ve worked with the building administrators and sometimes, as in the case with Creston, it was a parent who had asked, and the same at Rose City Park, and the same at Lewis.”

The third school that Magliano mentioned, Lewis Elementary, was tested this spring along with Creston K-8 and Rose City Park, but showed no elevated lead levels.

But the public learned of lead at Creston and Rose City Park initially through media reports. That drew a written apology from Superintendent Carole Smith last week, and a verbal apology from her at Tuesday night's Creston meeting.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR:

"I apologize for you not getting direct communication," Smith said.

Magliano and Smith appeared to agree with parents that the broader school community should be notified when there’s a safety risk, such as high lead levels.

Some parents wanted to focus on what to do now that their children have been exposed to lead.

Portland-area health officials have offered free lead screenings starting June 6 at Creston and Rose City Park schools. But they say children’s primary care physicians can give more in-depth blood tests.

For some parents, doctor visits may be unaffordable. One parent asked if the district would reimburse parents for the cost of lead testing.

Related: Lead In The Water: How We Got Here

"I don't have an answer for that at this moment," Smith said. Then she went on to mention the free screenings.

But children at greatest risk of problems from lead may be in families that are the least prepared to pay for the more detailed blood tests.

Multnomah County lead specialist Perry Cabot told parents that children who aren’t getting enough to eat are at higher risk.

“A child that is nutritionally deficient in calcium and iron and Vitamin C is more vulnerable to lead being absorbed, because the body is craving nutrients, and it mistakes lead for those nutrients,” Cabot said.

Smith said she intends to initiate two investigations into lead procedures: one focused on personnel failures in the last few months related to the lead findings at Creston and Rose City Park; the other looking back to 2001 when PPS last tested for lead in all schools.

The district also plans to test all of its schools for lead this summer. It shut off all drinking water at PPS schools at the end of last week, and officials plan to distribute bottled water through the end of the school year, June 9.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR:
THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR: