State law requires school districts to sample all water outlets currently or potentially used for drinking or cooking purposes in buildings that may be occupied by students and to submit those samples to a state-approved lab for analysis. Testing must be completed every three years, unless the state Commissioner of Health requires testing sooner.

The state established an action level of 5 micrograms per liter or 5 parts per billion (ppb). If a sample from a water outlet exceeds this level, schools must take steps to prevent the use of the outlet for drinking or cooking purposes until it is remediated and follow-up testing confirms it is no longer above the action level.

School districts are required to report the results of all water testing to the state Department of Health, the state Education Department and the local health department, and to post the results — along with remediation plans, if required — on the official district website.

Testing took place at the middle and high school on April 8, the elementary school on April 9 and the White Sulphur Springs building on April 10.

• At the high school, a hand washing sink in the Nurse’s Office returned a 10.1 parts per billion level.
• At the middle school, a second-floor pass-through storage hand washing sink returned a 175 parts per billion level.
• At the elementary school, eight sinks were found to be above 5 ppb
  • Between 16 & 17 Teacher space hand sink: 20.6 ppb
  • Room 30 class sink: 14.7 ppb
  • Room 42 class sink: 9.5 ppb
  • Room 43 class sink: 25.6 ppb
  • Room 45 class sink: 59.1 ppb
  • Room 46 class sink: 6.3 ppb
  • Room 48 class sink: 67.6 ppb
  • Room 53 class sink: 9.1 ppb
• All outlets at the White Sulphur Springs building returned levels below 5 ppb.

Signs have been posted at all impacted sinks that water is not to be consumed from that outlet. Remedial actions will be taken and the outlets will be retested.

More information and links to the full reports are available here.