BY ANNA MINTON (’17)

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The situation regarding the lead levels in water of the drinking fountains at the high school is “completely resolved,” according to Principal Matt Durst.

“We’re good to go,” said Durst. “We brought in the health department for another round of testing, and those test results came back last week, completely clear, so we are good to go with that.”

Durst clarified that there have been new preventative measures like maintenance cycles in the high school drinking fountains. They have been put in place to ensure that these levels will not be reached again.

“What they actually did was … a couple different things- they ordered some new fountains, and they also did some additional filters or workarounds, and installed everything,” said Durst. “Basically, they got all of the replacement phase done.”

“The other thing that they did, which I think is really intelligent, is that they added a maintenance cycle, to all the fountains where they will flush them after periods of no use,” said Durst. “So think, we go away for winter break, nobody touches the fountain for two weeks. Before the students get back in the building, they’re going to come and they’re going to flush the lines, just as a preventative measure.”

The probable cause of the lead crisis this past year was the coolant system. According to Durst, the issue was with the coils in the coolant systems. It was found that the coils were soldered with a material that had traces of lead in it.

“So what they did is that they either bypassed those (coils), or they replaced them, or they have replaced the whole fountain, depending on the age of the fountain,” said Durst.

Durst confirmed that along with the preventative maintenance cycles, a frequent and consistent testing of the school’s water supply will be conducted. This process should ensure that history does not repeat itself and the will be no further safety concerns.

“So they’ve added the preventative measure of flushing the fountains after periods of no use,” said Durst. “Then they will also continue to work with the health department.”

Durst stated that the Granville Health Department has been working alongside the administration throughout the solving of this issue, and that they have played a key role in the success of the solution.

“The health department… they were fantastic,” said Durst. “I think we did a nice job of responding, we did what we had to do, but the health department was nice because they came in and they did the screening and the testing. They were a really strong partner with us.”