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Water Lead Testing Program

In December 2021, our Board of Education approved moving forward with a program that will provide free water testing and technical assistance to assess lead in the drinking water of Derby Public Schools. This is part of a Water Lead Testing Program that is made available through the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE). The funding for the program is made available through the Environmental Protection Agency and was directed to Kansas schools by KDHE, making the testing part of the program at no expense to the district. After the testing is completed, if a test comes back high, KDHE consults with schools on any problem. 

Derby Public Schools shared at the time of approval that if a problem is detected, stakeholders would know what steps will be taken to remediate the issue. If a problem is detected it doesn’t necessarily mean that all the pipes in a building have to be replaced. It may be a more isolated area like a sink or a single water fountain that has been impacted. The district is responsible for the cost of remediating any lead pipe problem. It is important to understand the testing is not being done because anyone thinks or suspects there is a problem. It is being done to see if there is or is not a problem.

The health and safety of children and staff is of vital importance to us and we recently began testing drinking water to identify potential sources of lead in our plumbing system. As we learned, manufacturers were allowed to put up to 8% lead in plumbing materials until 2014 and many schools, daycares and homes may have unknowingly purchased these materials.

Please find results below from each school as testing is completed and they become available.

 

Water Lead Testing Results