Jefferson County Schools testing water for elevated lead levels

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. -- Children in Jefferson County return to school next Thursday and the district is scrambling to make sure their water is safe to drink, after elevated levels of lead were found in some schools over the summer break. 

The district began testing its buildings after elevated lead levels were found in the water of the Jefferson County Head Start building Arvada back in April 2016, Jefferson County Public Schools spokesperson Diana Wilson told Denver7. 

"So far we've tested 91 schools and we've gotten results back from 72 elementary schools," said Wilson. A total of 3,815 water samples have been drawn since tests began on June 3. 

Of the nearly 4,000 samples taken, almost 3,000 are clean, "but needless to say, they need to be remedied because there is no safe level of lead in the water and we want it to be a healthy environment for all kids, Wilson said. 

The remainder of the samples taken have different levels of lead above the Environmental Protection Agency's recommendation levels. 

"It is going to take a while to fix all of those problems. It could be something as small as an aerator, [it] could be the actual fixture used in the sink or it could be a pipe that is feeding water to that sink," Wilson said, "so we kinda [sic] have to work backwards for every place that we find high lead levels and try and fix the issue."

Test results can be found on the district's website by clicking here.