St. Albans City School
29 Bellows Street
St. Albans, Vermont 05478
802-527-0565
March 30, 2018
Dear Families and Staff:
In November we shared with you that our school volunteered to take part in a pilot project to test 16 Vermont schools for lead in drinking water. We accepted this pilot offer because we want to validate our belief that our water is safe. By participating in this project, we took a proactive approach to health and safety. We have our results, and are pleased to see that our proactive maintenance resulted in safe drinking water throughout most of our building. There was one original faucet from the 1960s that had a high lead level. It has already been replaced and will be retested in 6 weeks, until then it will be posted hand wash only. The rest of the water sources were well within EPA guidelines and nearly all were <1ppb. The full results are here.
While the major source of lead poisoning in most Vermont children is paint, lead in plumbing fixtures can add to a person’s overall exposure. Drinking water in schools and homes may contain lead from old lead pipes, plumbing fixtures (e.g. fountains and faucets), or solder that joins pipe sections together.
The Health Department recommends that private well owners test their drinking water routinely for contaminants, including bacteria, metals (e.g. arsenic and uranium), and radioactivity. Test kits can be provided at no charge to families whose children attend St. Albans City School and have private drinking water in their home (e.g. well or spring). For families whose children attend St. Albans City School and are on public water, free test kits can be provided to check the water in your home for lead.
You can request your free drinking water test kit by: Filling out the Free Drinking Water Test Kit Request Form for Families of School Lead Testing at http://bit.ly/2DeRk1Z, Emailing AHS.VDHPrivateWellTestResults@vermont.gov with your name, address, a contact number, water source (private or public water), and where your child attends school, or Calling 800-439-8550 and asking to speak with someone about “St. Albans City Drinking Water”.
To learn more about lead hazards and lead poisoning prevention, contact the Health Department: Call: 800-439-8550 or Visit: healthvermont.gov/lead
Thank you,
Joan Cavallo Robin Boudreau
Principal St. Albans City School Facility Manager St. Albans City School