Seventeen academic buildings have water with lead levels close to or higher than the federal limit, according to a study conducted by the Office of Environmental Health and Safety last fall.
The study involved collecting water samples from all on- and off-campus University buildings and comparing their lead levels to 15 parts per billion - the standard set by the Environmental Protection Agency, said Stephen Morin, EHS director.
Though the study indicated the presence of lead in the water in some buildings, Morin said it is "not a serious problem."
"Most buildings have been fine," he said. Residence halls "were our first priority - checking the areas where students lived, quickly."
Lead levels in all residence halls were well under 15 parts per billion, Morin said, adding that though this finding didn't surprise him, it was "nice to confirm that."
The buildings with some of the highest levels of lead were 50 John St. and 37 Cooke St.
Three undergraduates - Libby Delucia '09, Matthew Wheeler '09 and Megan Whelan '09 - alerted the University to the presence of high levels of lead after they tested campus buildings for their environmental science class. They found the applied math building to have nearly 150 parts per billion of lead, which is ten times the federal limit, The Herald reported Oct. 1.
The students submitted their data to Morin, who said he decided to investigate the matter further "to make sure that the numbers were right."
"It made sense to me and to Brown that if we didn't have that information, to do (the study) now," he said.
Morin said the results of the EHS study were similar to what the students found.
To determine the worst-case scenario, Morin and his team collected water samples after letting taps run for 30 seconds early in the morning. Higher lead content is usually found when water has been stagnant in the pipes overnight, he said.
Morin said that older buildings are more likely to have higher lead levels because lead was more readily available and easy to work with when those buildings were constructed.
368 water samples were analyzed by R.I. Analytical, a lab in Warwick that analyzes both drinking and waste water, Morin said. About 21 samples from buildings in the Jewelry District will be analyzed by the end of this week to finish the study, he added.
When the results of the study were obtained, EHS sent out e-mails to certain contacts in each of the 17 affected buildings, to be forwarded to all of the buildings' occupants.
It also put up signs near water fountains and faucets, warning against a potentially high lead content and advising visitors to use the lead filters or bottled water now provided in the buildings by Facilities Management.
Susan Rottenberg, academic coordinator for the Department of German Studies, said she was "surprised" that the department's building at 190 Hope St. tested high for lead. She said some people in the building had regularly used tap water for drinking and making tea and coffee for many years.
"It's nice that (the University) provided the solution and chose to pay for (the bottled water)," she said.
Providing bottled water and filters to buildings will cost Facilities Management between $12,000 and $15,000 annually, Morin said.
He said since this cost is not very high, bottled water could be a long-term solution to the problem of lead-contaminated water.
Morin said another remedy is to let the water run for about a minute before consuming it, especially early in the morning.
Putting bottled water in buildings is a good short-term solution to the problem of lead in drinking water, said Steven Hamburg, associate professor of environmental sciences. But Hamburg said letting water run is not the best solution because "wasting water is an issue today."
Utilities should be upgraded when possible for greater safety, he said.
Hamburg said he removed lead pipes from his own 105-year old home after his students discovered them during a class project.
But Morin said though the University will carry out renovation when possible, trying to remove the lead in the plumbing could sometimes "ruin" the historic architecture of a building.
Removing lead from all University buildings might be "an extremely expensive proposition," said Clay Commons, senior environmental scientist at the Rhode Island Department of Health's Office of Drinking Water Quality.
Commons, whose department is advising the University informally on the issue of lead in water, said there is no simple solution to prevent lead leeching.
He said, for example, that instead of letting taps run, water may be collected and used for any activity other than drinking and cooking, such as showering, watering plants or washing floors.
"We have to get people to change their behavior," he said, though he admitted such changes would be difficult to implement in a classroom, university or laboratory setting.
Last year, the Providence Water Supply Board undertook a 15-year project to replace lead-containing service lines that it owns around the city. Commons said the board is also going to change the water chemistry to a more neutral pH level since lead dissolves in water with both high and low pH.
Lead impairs neurological development in children and causes "a measurable decline in IQ," Commons said.
But the greatest exposure to lead comes from lead paint or, as in earlier days, from the lead in gasoline. "We don't want panic. Nobody's going to die from the lead in the water," Commons said.
