Drinking Water Testing Program

EHS routinely conducts drinking water testing for lead contamination in PSU buildings.

The main source of lead in drinking water is from the leaching of lead-containing alloys or lead-containing solder into drinking water lines. In 1986 the Safe Drinking Water Act was amended to include a lead ban, which required the use of lead-free pipe, solder, and flux in construction of new facilities.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for lead in drinking water is 15 part per billion (ppb). Under the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Portland Water Bureau, this is considered a goal for all public water systems

The Oregon Department of Education’s Early Learning Division (ELD) instituted requirements in 2018 that all state licensed child care facilities provide corrective actions when water from faucets or fixtures used for preparing food and/or infant formula and for drinking or cooking have lead content over 15 ppb.

Protocols For General Use Campus Buildings

The testing protocol for PSU includes all buildings but with priority given to buildings constructed prior to 1990.

Each building is sampled from a representative number of drinking water fixtures depending on the size of the buildings, total drinking water sources, and history of sampling results. The sampling locations within the buildings rotate over time.

In order to help address potential contamination before lead levels reach the MCL of 15 ppb, PSU requires response and repair actions when lead testing results are above 13 ppb.

In the event lead content above 13 ppb is achieved, the water source may be turned off and signs placed to indicate it is out-of-order. Corrective actions will be initiated to identify and replace the lead source. Additional sampling will be performed to determine if lead levels have been reduced to 13 ppb or lower.

Once periodic testing has yielded results from multiple floors and quadrants with acceptable lead levels, frequency of sampling may be reduced to a period of every 5 years.

Protocols for Childcare Facilities

EHS has collected lead-in-water samples for the three years previous to the Oregon Department of Education’s ELD new requirements in 2018 from the three existing childcare facilities at PSU. No samples collected over this four-year period yielded any results with lead content exceeding the acceptable levels.

At a minimum, representative sampling will continue at each facility every two to three years.

In the event lead contents yield above acceptable limits, access to the faucets will be prevented and remediation will occur. Re-testing will be performed after corrective actions have been completed.

The Oregon ELD also requires childcare providers “must reduce children’s exposure to lead regardless of results by running faucets 30 seconds to two minutes before using water for drinking, cooking, or preparing formula.”

Residence Halls

In 2016, drinking water from all kitchen and bathroom fixtures in all campus residence halls were tested by an independent consultant.

Remediation was taken for locations that contained lead in amounts higher than 15 ppb and resampled until results showed content below that amount.

Periodic testing in areas where lead content was consistently higher has been conducted following remediation and all locations have resulted below 13 ppb.

These test results are available and may be requested through EHS.

Resources

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Portland Water Bureau