Three Yellowknife area schools are seeing major upgrades to their water systems in preparation for the school year, following findings of elevated lead levels earlier this year. In the meantime, alternative sources of drinking water will be made available for students and staff at École William McDonald Middle School, Range Lake North School, and also at NJ Macpherson School
At Macpherson, officials announced recently that although some water sources are considered safe for drinking, alternative sources of safe drinking water will be provided until upgrades to the water system are complete.
“As a precaution, the Chief Public Health Officer has issued a Health Order requiring the school to flush the whole system daily and provide alternative safe drinking water until mitigation measures are complete. Drinking fountains will remain available for use.”
According to the advisory, testing will continue following the new upgrades and installations of new fountains, fixtures and other equipment such as the carbon filters being installed at École William McDonald Middle School.
The public advisory issued today by GNWT, outlined the mitigation measures being implemented at each of the three YK1 schools:
École William McDonald Middle School:
- All fountains, faucets, and food preparation fixtures are being replaced. Two new drinking fountains have been installed, with the remaining units expected by Thursday.
- New food preparation fixtures are being installed at all locations this week.
- Point-of-use activated carbon filters are expected to be installed at every drinking water and food preparation fixture by early next week. These filters remove lead regardless of its source, ensuring that water is safe to drink.
- Water will be tested once all new fixtures and filters are in place, with results available within 24 hours.
At École William McDonald Middle School, the new upgrades are scheduled to be complete by the end of next week, according to the advisory.
Range Lake North School:
- All fountains, faucets, and food preparation fixtures are being replaced this week.
- An automated flushing system will be installed once all new components are in place.
- This is expected to take about one month.
- A manual flushing program will be in place until the automated system is operating.
- Water will be tested once all new fixtures are in place, with results available within 24 hours.
For Range Lake North School, the installations are expected to be finished by the middle of next week.
N.J. Macpherson School:
- Follow-up testing at N.J. Macpherson school was carried out on August 20th. The school was prioritized for testing due to earlier results showing elevated levels of lead. See August 23rd PSA for more information.
- One pending result has now been received, confirming lead levels below the guideline.
- Five sinks used for drinking or food preparation tested above Health Canada’s guideline (5 µg/L) in Tier 2 sampling, while all drinking fountains and water bottle fill stations tested below the guideline and remain available for use. Replacement components are on order and expected to arrive in mid-September.
For N.J. Macpherson School, no date was given but officials said that the installation would take place when replacement components arrive, which is expected to be sometime in mid Sept.
The advisory outlined a plan of “next steps” including follow-up testing and territory wide testing/retesting of the remaining 46 schools.
- Officials said drinking water service at affected schools will only resume once:
- new safety systems are in place;
- follow-up testing confirms water is safe; and
- approval is given by the Office of the Chief Public Health Officer.
- Filters will be monitored and replaced as needed throughout the school year.
- Territory-wide school testing will begin as soon as possible, using a priority approach guided by national best practices and advice from the Office of the Chief Public Health Officer – the same priority approach that was used to guide testing for N.J. Macpherson. Priority factors include the age of the facility, existing water quality data, age of students, and results from initial random sampling.
- A detailed testing protocol is being finalized and will be reviewed by the Office of the Chief Public Health Officer.
Former staff who have concerns about workplace lead exposure can also submit a Worker’s Report of Injury to the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission.
According to the advisory, the monitoring of water systems at these schools will include regular testing, with the public being provided with updates as the territory-wide testing program moves forward.
These related links were provided by the GNWT:
Stantec report: Range Lake School
Stantec report: William MacDonald School
Report: Investigation into the Testing Program for Drinking Water in Northwest Territories Schools
WSCC Worker’s Report of Injury Form
Monitoring and Testing of Water in the NWT
