SFCC employee testing shows normal lead levels after contaminated water found

Employees who work in a building where extremely high levels of lead in the water was detected last month all had normal levels of lead in their blood, according to Spokane Falls Community College officials.

The college did not get individual employee test results but received a summary report from a third party, Occupational Medicine Associates, said Chief Administrative Officer Greg Stevens. Anything below a blood lead level of 10 micrograms per deciliter of lead in blood is considered normal and 91 percent of the 55 employees tested had a blood lead level below 1.5, said Stevens. The highest lead level measured was 3.7.

The threshold is 5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood in children.

Reports of cloudy water in the east side of Building 17, where financial aid and other administrative offices are housed, prompted water testing in May. Tests showed a lead level of 1,640 parts per billion and 37,800 parts per billion of iron. Federal safety standards are 15 parts per billion for lead and 300 parts per billion for iron.

A corroded galvanized pipe is thought to have been the culprit. That pipe and all other pipes in that section of the building have been replaced, said Stevens, and the drinking fountains in that area will also be replaced. The college plans to flush the system with chlorine this weekend and conduct new water tests Sunday or Monday.

“If it comes back clear, our intent is to turn the water back on in that portion of the building on Tuesday morning,” Stevens said.

Replacing all the pipes should solve the problem even if it wasn’t the corroded pipe causing the issue, Stevens said.

“We’re pretty confident that if it wasn’t that pipe, it was in that piping system,” he said.

The test results also prompted the testing of all other buildings on the SFCC and Spokane Community College campuses for lead. Everything else came back normal except for one drinking fountain at the SCC Apprenticeship and Journeyman Training Center at 2110 N. Fancher Road. The lead levels were 30 parts per billion.

The water has been shut off and the drinking fountain will be replaced, Stevens said. Employees who work in the building will be given the opportunity to have free blood tests done.

Branch campus facilities in more rural locations, including Colville and Newport, will have their water tested soon, Stevens said.

SFCC and SCC are not required to conduct regular lead testing because they are on city water. However, officials are working to create a plan for regular testing in the future, Stevens said.

“We now have a baseline for all our facilities,” he said. “We’ll have a plan in place. As I sit here today, I have no idea what that will look like.”

It was estimated that replacing the pipes in Building 17 would cost between $5,000 and $10,000 but crews discovered they had to drill through concrete walls to finish the job, raising the price. The cost of the medical testing has not yet been determined, Stevens said.