Theme: 10. Characterization, Fate and Transport

Topic Area: 10i. Improvements in Site Data Collection, Data Management, and Data Visualization

Formatted Title:

Lead in School Drinking Water: Adopting Smart Data Management Technologies for Efficient Analysis and Communication

Background/Objectives:

Many US schools have lead-contaminated drinking water. Children are particularly vulnerable to lead poisoning which can promote reduced IQ, slowed growth, behavioral difficulties, hearing issues, anemia, and other adverse health effects. Yet, there has never been a federal law requiring comprehensive lead testing of drinking water within schools. However, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does encourage schools, childcare facilities, states, and water purveyors to implement voluntary lead in drinking water testing programs, and has developed the 3Ts Toolkit: Testing, Training & Telling. Since 2017, Terraphase Engineering, Inc. (Terraphase) has used the EPA 3T approach to sample thousands of schools, collecting tens of thousands of water samples to test for lead in drinking water. The data management workflows employed by Terraphase have been applied for a variety of clients all of which require multi-site support including school districts, municipal water purveyors, national private childcare organizations, independent private schools, charter organizations, as well as statewide federally funded programs

Approach/Activities:

Sampling is the only way to determine whether elevated levels of lead are present in drinking water. Terraphase conducts water sampling in schools and childcare facilities across the US, and staff are specifically trained to collect defensible, reliable data from first-draw water samples per EPA 3T recommendations. The sampling process is documented by using smart mobile field data collection methods to avoid paper and transcription errors, and traditional document management pitfalls. Drinking water samples are analyzed at accredited laboratories to determine lead concentration. Laboratory analytical results are issued electronically, and an automated workflow uploads the data into the environmental data management system (EDMS) ESdat, where results are immediately compared with the relevant lead action levels. Any reported lead exceedances trigger email notifications that are distributed to project team members for immediate implementation of required actions. Finally, and possibly most importantly, reporting of lead test findings are provided in a clear and concise manner to the school community and parents of the children occupying these buildings. The entire process can be streamlined and effectively accomplished with an optimized data system.

Results/Lessons Learned:

Prior to the adoption of the automated EDMS workflow, the project was reliant on team members transcribing field notes, retrieving the laboratory reports from email, processing results obtained in the reports manually, and then taking actions to report exceedances school representatives when required. Although the former process is viable, it is inefficient and subject to delays required by human processing time necessary to prepare sample result spreadsheets. Manual data processing also increases the risk of transcription errors or missed exceedances. The entire process can be further delayed in the event project team members are unable to access their emails.

With a fully automated electronic workflow, Terraphase can be confident of the following:

Field measurements are immediately available as they are collected;
Lead concentrations will be compiled and checked as soon as sampling results are available;
Transcription errors are eliminated;
Elevated lead concentrations are identified and communicated to stakeholders without delay; and
Documentation regarding the location and results of each sampling event is maintained in a secure and searchable database for future review.

In summary, the entire sampling process is streamlined so that any actions required to mitigate potential exposure risk to students can be implemented sooner. The process also increases confidence in the quality of the data being used to support critical risk assessment recommendations.

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Dave Bishop