BEND, OR -- Bend-La Pine Schools continue to conduct follow-up water testing at two schools that showed lead levels higher than what’s recommended by the EPA. Julianne Repman, with the district, says fixtures throughout La Pine Middle School were retested, last week, after lead was found in a water fountain inside a forner classroom. "Everything came back good. In there, we took out the drinking fountain and the water faucet; just because it’s not used, anyway." That room is now used as a storage space for the the Family Access Network.
Read more about recent testing and results at Bend-La Pine Schools.
Drinking water is back on at La Pine Middle School. But, they’re taking more drastic measures at Amity Creek Elementary in Bend, where lead was found in follow-up testing, in a classroom sink and fountain. "At Amity Creek, we’re going to go in over Thanksgiving Break and replace everything from the shut-off valve, up into the fountain and the faucet. So, literally replacing all of those pieces of the fixture." She tells KBND News the work will be done on every drinking water fixture in the small school, "The pipe, the shut-off valve, the faucet and the water fountain."
Repman says, "In the next three weeks, students will continue to have bottled water in school; they’re still good to go ahead and wash their hands. In fact, those fixtures had been recently remodeled. In the bathrooms, they have new sinks. We will just continue to provide that bottled water until we get a positive result back after replacement of all of the fixtures in the classrooms and in the building." She adds, "We will retest and then, once we get those results back, if it shows that the levels are within the EPA guideline, then we’re good and we’ll turn the water back on. But, we will keep the water off until a time that we have the results back that are positive."
