SEELEY LAKE - Seeley-Swan High School is upgrading its pipes over the summer after discovering a high concentration of lead back in 2017. The project, made possible by a $400,000 grant, will replace all the domestic water piping entering the high school.
“It is huge first off from a safety standpoint,” said SSHS Principal Kellen Palmer. “Everyone who enters our building, whether that’s students, staff, or community guests, will have peace of mind knowing everyone can go drink out of the drinking fountain and not have to worry.”
The new pipes are paid through the Delivering Local Assistance Program, a state-funded program created in the 2019 legislature due to help aid aging community infrastructure. Out of the $21.5 million in grants available, $10.75 million was distributed to school district projects.
According to the Montana Department of Commerce, the program funded 28 school projects across the state. One requirement for applicants was that they had to be impacted by changes in the natural resource industry.
“Applicants must demonstrate the impact that coal, oil, gas or timber has on their existing or future population,” the eligibility statement said. “This impact must be demonstrated at a minimum through describing the impact or recorded production data from the area the local government is located.”
The school first noticed the high levels of lead when the Missoula County Public School system decided to test its water district-wide in the wake of the news surrounding the water situations reported in Flint, Michigan and Portland, Oregon. When the SSHS water was tested in the final rounds of testing for the county, three of the five areas showed lead between 21 and 28 parts per billion (ppb).
These sinks were located in the men’s and women’s restrooms in the front hallway of the original building built in 1964, as well as a sink in the teacher’s lounge. Two other locations tested on campus showed normal levels of lead.
“Since that time, we turned off our drinking fountains and have been receiving Culligan filtered water for drinking and cooking,” said Palmer.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency in 2016, low levels of lead exposure in children have been linked to damage to the central and peripheral nervous system, learning disabilities, shorter stature, impaired hearing and impaired formation and function of blood cells.
In Missoula County, a survey by Environment Montana Policy Center between 2016-2018 reported77.7% of water tests on the county’s various public schools found more than 1ppb of lead in the water. Compared to the three other largest cities in Montana, Missoula had the highest concentration of lead in schools, though every district tested at least 65% of their pipes above 1ppb.
After the county tested and confirmed the high levels of water at SSHS, it replaced both the fixtures and the internal pipes leading to those areas. However that still did not resolve the lead count, implying the lead problem has no immediate source.
Palmer said with the schematics of the pipe replacement finished, they have the project out to bid. They hope to start before the end of June and finish the project by the start of the fall 2020 semester. Palmer hopes using the piped-in water will bring a sense of comfort to the school.
“I think it will be a nice change to have drinking fountains instead of paper cups,” Palmer said. “We will just be able to feel like it’s normal again.”
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