Students at Lisgar Collegiate have been drinking water from coolers after health inspectors determined that the schools piping system is causing unsafe lead levels in the drinking water.
With high amounts of lead found in the tap water at Lisgar Collegiate, staff and students have resorted to drinking from water coolers since the start of the school year.
The problem was discovered in August during a routine test, when some of the pipes in the school were found to be leaching lead into the water supply.
“It happened in the summer when there weren’t any students here and (the school board) said we should switch to bottled water, so we’ve been using bottled water all year,” says principal David McMahon.
McMahon says the transition to water coolers and bottled water is one reason why there have not been any lead-related health problems at the school.
Parents also seemed unconcerned about the levels of lead in the school’s water supply.
“I didn’t see it as a situation. There was a test, a result and they addressed it,” says Rachel Eugster, co-chair of Lisgar’s school council.
Farah Mohammadi, whose daughter is a Grade 10 student, agrees with Eugster.
“I trust the school, so I know that if there’s anything that they need to consider, they will,” she says. “And I’m usually a worried parent about everything, but I’m not worried about that.”
However, Lisgar Grade 11 student Qufei Chen says accessing the coolers has been difficult.
“The coolers run out of water really quickly, so usually you find a cooler with some water in it but no cups, or there will be cups and no water,” says Chen.
“And there’s not a lot of (water coolers) and they’re kind of spread out . . . so it’s really inconvenient."
But it may not be long before the school switches back to tap water.
To solve the problem, the school must first clean out its pipes and then install new faucet fixtures, since the pipes and faucets are connected.
McMahon says a new lead-free faucet fixture was installed at one of the drinking fountains on Nov. 1 and more faucet installations have been planned.
Sharlene Hunter, an official with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, says the school then planned to run two consecutive tests on its water, with the tests being a week apart.
If the levels of lead are acceptable, then the school will go back to drinking from its water fountains. Lisgar expects to turn the taps back on this month.
The 167-year-old school still uses lead pipes for its drinking water, though most of the city switched over to using copper pipes in the 1950s.
Lead pipes are still considered as safe sources of drinking water until they begin to leach, allowing lead to seep into the water.
“The older the pipes, the more likely it is for the situation to happen, so (testing) is something we do regularly,” says Hunter.
The Ontario government also requires schools that have plumbing predating Jan.1, 1990, to test their water every day.
Still, even with regular testing and assurances that the water is safe to drink, Chen says she’s not sure she would trust her school’s tap water.
“I probably won’t be drinking from the fountains anytime soon, even if they say it’s safe. I’ll probably just bring a bottle of water from now on.”