Lead Tests Scheduled In Schools Sampling In Silver Valley Schools To Begin In Early May, Not Expected To Disrupt Students

Along with math quizzes and spelling bees, students in Silver Valley schools soon will experience lead tests.

By the beginning of May, crews are expected to start sampling for the toxic metal in school buildings in the Kellogg, Wallace and Mullan districts.

A state judge ordered lead testing in all Silver Valley schools last month.

All schools will cooperate, said Kellogg Superintendent Greg Godwin.

“That’s no problem. Obviously, we are interested,” Godwin said. “If there is an issue of student safety, we want to be aware of it.”

The tests aren’t expected to interrupt the school day, with crews working in the mornings and evenings and while students are in class.

It’s unclear how the testing will be done. The federal Environmental Protection Agency is paying for the sampling, estimated to cost $30,000 to $70,000.

Kellogg district schools within the 21-square-mile Bunker Hill Superfund site were tested for lead a decade ago. Officials say the findings were reassuring.

But school buildings outside the Bunker Hill site never have been tested, prompting some parents to celebrate the judge’s order.

Stacey Jordan, who grew up in the Silver Valley, said lead in schools wasn’t tested before because of pro-mining sentiment in the community. “I think it’s great. They should have done it years ago,” said Jordan, who has a 7-year-old at Osburn Elementary and another child entering kindergarten. “It was brought up before and swept under the rug. That’s how it is around here.”

Not all parents feel that way: one Kellogg woman who didn’t want to be named said testing is a waste of money.

Kathy Joy, another Kellogg mom, has said the judge’s order is simply the result of advocacy groups trying to press the issue.

Children under 7 are most vulnerable to the effects of lead, which can stunt mental and physical development.

On March 21, 4th District Judge Deborah Bail handed down a verbal order for testing. The ruling fell within a larger school safety lawsuit against the state of Idaho.

Robert Huntley, the attorney representing 15 districts suing the state, this week suggested to Silver Valley schools that an independent contractor do the testing.

That avoids EPA or Panhandle Health District involvement, “so that it’ll have full credibility from all sides,” Huntley said.

Lead comes from decades of hard-rock mining, much of it before environmental regulations banned tailings dumping into rivers.

Health officials say the best way to reduce lead inside schools is to clean up mine waste in people’s yards and homes. That’s also where vulnerable pre-schoolers spend most of their time.

In 1989, lead sampling in schools within the Bunker Hill Superfund site revealed levels ranging from 319 to 1,040 parts per million. The national safety threshold is 100 ppm; however, the goal inside Bunker Hill is 500.

Since then, residential yard replacements and removing contaminated soil outside schools should have lowered levels further, Godwin said.

Of the schools inside the Superfund site, only Kellogg Middle School still needs cleanup, because mining companies are doing the cleanup block-by-block.

Outside the site, EPA ordered cleanups at any schools where samples revealed high lead concentrations, including Osburn Elementary, Wallace High School and Mullan Elementary. A massive cleanup plan for the Coeur d’Alene River basin, due out next summer, may reveal additional cleanups at schools, said EPA’s Sean Sheldrake.

Overall, schools tend to be much cleaner than homes, Sheldrake said. “It’s a very controlled environment,” he said. “We’ve seen a lot higher interior (lead) levels in homes.”