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Lead Testing of Drinking Water in Louisiana Schools - Story Map
In accordance with Act 632 of the 2018 Regular Session, the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) has established a pilot program for drinking water testing in public elementary schools constructed prior to 1986. The pilot program is managed by the LDH Safe Drinking Water Program who, in collaboration with local school districts, selects twelve schools for testing each year beginning in 2018 and ending in 2020. Samples are collected from existing potable water fixtures, such as drinking fountains and kitchen faucets, within each school, and analyzed for Lead and Copper. The sample result data that the Safe Drinking Water Program has received to date are presented here.
Using this map
The map displayed at the left side of your screen contains Lead and Copper sampling results for schools tested in the State of Louisiana. The green flags symbolize schools without Action Level Exceedances (ALEs), the purple flags symbolize schools with ALEs with completed follow-ups, and the red flags symbolize schools with ALEs with pending follow-ups. In Louisiana, the action level for Lead is 0.015 mg/L (milligrams per liter), sometimes also expressed as 15 ppb (parts per billion), and the action level for Copper is 1.3 mg/L, sometimes also expressed as 1.3 ppm (parts per million), in both cases equal to the EPA limits defined in the Lead and Copper Rule. To assist you in navigating the story map, a guidance document is provided below.
About sample results
Two samples are collected at each sampling point: “first draw” and “flush” samples. A first draw sample of 250 milliliter is collected from a fixture that has not been used during the immediately preceding 8-18 hours. This sample represents the stagnant water from the fixture itself. Immediately after the first draw sample, a flush sample of 250 milliliter is collected from the same fixture after allowing water to flow through the fixture continuously for 30 seconds or longer depending on the fixture type. This sample represents the stagnant water from the building plumbing immediately behind the fixture[JF2] . Each sample is analyzed for Lead and Copper by a certified laboratory. In this map, sample result values are displayed relative to the analyzing laboratory’s Minimum Reporting Limit (MRL), which is the lowest value at which the laboratory can reliably report a result. The MRL values are different for different analytes. The majority of the results included in this map have an MRL for Lead at 0.001 mg/L and an MRL for Copper at 0.1 mg/L. A Lead result below the MRL is shown as “<0.001 MG/L” and a Copper result below the MRL is shown as “<0.1 MG/L”.
About Action Level Exceedances
An Action Level is a trigger value above which some form of follow-up action is required. In the event of an ALE the follow-up action is tiered and the first step is typically to resample the affected specific fixture. If the results from the resampling are below the ALE no further follow-up action may be required. If the results from the resampling are above the ALE, corrective action may be required. Examples of corrective actions are replacing the fixture or removing the fixture from service altogether. In the attribute table for schools with at least one ALE, column “ALE Followup Action Status” shows the overall status of any known follow-up actions. For details about specific follow-up actions, please see the Results attribute table or the individual results shown in the popup. In either of those, column “ALE Followup Action” shows what follow-up action was taken in response to that specific result.