Despite tests ordered by the Eastern Howard School Corporation in November, the Howard County Health Department has announced the risk of lead poisoning from the water in that county is low.
The school district is still taking precautions, including blood tests at the high school on Friday. Despite the low health risks, Eastern Howard High School will offer free, voluntary testing.
“In an abundance of caution and care for our students and staff, we're going to have a clinic for lead testing on Friday, put on by the Howard County Health Department,” Eastern Howard Schools Superintendent Tracy Caddell says.
Caddell is hopeful no one will register elevated levels.
The school shut off its water after tests indicated elevated lead levels in the water supply. It is now using bottled water for drinking and cooking, which costs the district about $400 a day.
Eastern’s elevated levels are much lower than those measured in Flint, Michigan. Eastern’s levels peaked at 22 parts per billion. Flint’s peaked at nearly 600 times that.
Mary Hollingsworth, Drinking Water Branch Chief for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, says elevated lead levels are relatively rare.
“Maybe 1-percent of the systems in the state of Indiana that had to sample for lead and copper, 1-percent exceeded the action level,” Hollingsworth says.
That’s out of 4,000 systems statewide.