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Lead found in water at Fort Smith Schools
Paul William Kaeser High School and Joseph Burr Tyrell School were both found to have lead contamination in certain water fixtures
A new Public Health Order is being issued to a new pair of NWT schools, once again due to a high presence of lead.
Water testing was recently conducted at Paul William Kaeser High School and Joseph Burr Tyrell School in Fort Smith, with a handful of water fixtures in both schools showing lead contamination above the maximum acceptable concentrations set by the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality.
The affected water fixtures at both schools have immediately been taken out of service, and alternative sources of drinking water will be provided if not already available.
The GNWT will be investigating the affected fixtures to see what needs to be fixed or replaced. Once all the necessary measures have been implemented, additional water testing will be conducted, and an assessment will be made by the Office of the Chief Public Health Officer.
Numerous other schools in the NWT have been found to have lead in their water supplies, and many have already had their water systems properly tended to. The GNWT has made it their mission to test every school in the Territory for lead contamination, and is doing so on a priority-based protocol, taking into account the age of the building, the age of the students, and information gathered by previous water quality tests.
