Schools Lawyer To Fund Lead Tests Citing Different Methods, Epa Plans To Do Its Own Tests

A Boise attorney is shelling out more than $6,000 of his own money to test Silver Valley schools for lead, but federal officials will do their own, separate tests anyway.

Robert Huntley, the attorney representing 15 school districts in a school safety lawsuit against the state, has volunteered to pay to test five schools. Tests will start June 19.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency still plans to test some time in late summer or fall, the usual time for such sampling, the EPA’s Sean Sheldrake said.

“We will have to go back out regardless,” Sheldrake said. Huntley’s testing method doesn’t jibe with the process the EPA uses, Sheldrake said.

Huntley is paying to speed any cleanup because lead poses a risk to next year’s students, he said. He criticized the EPA position that lead in children’s homes poses a more immediate risk.

“If a kid is getting salmonella poisoning of high concentration at home and a poisoning of lower concentration at school, wouldn’t you want to eliminate both?” he asked.

But Sheldrake said recent studies show that 2-year-old children are most vulnerable to the dangers of lead poisoning, which include mental and physical retardation.

Those kids aren’t in school.

“We’ve got good rationale for focusing on homes,” Sheldrake said.

Last year, 16 percent of 1- to 6-year-olds tested in the Coeur d’Alene River basin showed elevated amounts of lead in their blood, according to the state of Idaho’s testing contractor. That’s four times the state average.

The attorney for Kellogg-area schools said he hadn’t discussed the June testing with his clients, but didn’t think it would be a problem.

“I’m sure the schools will cooperate,” Kellogg attorney Fred Gibler said.

Huntley also disputes the EPA’s estimates for the cost of testing schools, which range from $5,000 to $50,000. The Salt Lake City firm the attorney asked to do the testing estimated it would cost $6,300 to test five schools at first, and a total of $16,300 to test all 15 buildings Huntley wants evaluated in Kellogg, Osburn, Mullan and Wallace.

Last March, Idaho District Judge Deborah Bail ordered lead testing in Silver Valley schools, following testimony from former Wallace resident Tina Paddock and New York lead expert Dr. John Rosen.