Dear Editor,

Cashmere Schools Lead in drinking water and water used for cooking food at Vale Elementary, request to coordinate epidemiology/water quality research monitoring

It seems like the just above bare minimum legally is where the Cashmere School District will continue to go for Lead monitoring sources regardless of the lack of scientific basis for their solution at Vale Elementary to keep certain drinking water fixtures open without even putting in a Lead filtration system, at least for now. They might sample again in the future sometime between six months and five years but I don't know the details of their sampling site design as I can't keep up with this as it's not my job and gathering all the information on this land use history of Lead in Cashmere could take years.

These Lead drinking water rules were not made to protect children's health but more to protect infrastructure of old towns that were constructed with Lead pipes that can't or don't want to invest the money to monitor and upgrade their system because legally they don't have to monitor schools until 2026. Just above bare minimum is what I believe the lawyer is advising the school district to do but I don't know the details for sure. The less monitoring they do the less evidence there is of the potential sources of Lead which could be from pipes or maybe from the historical use of Lead as a pesticide for orchards for decades through roughly the 1940's that has a potential for legacy Lead to infiltrate into groundwater wells and drinking water supply given the City appears to be sampling for Lead once every few years and they assume that the Lead might not pulse thru during different times of the year or weather events even though the Lead from decades ago sprayed on orchards didn't go away.

I don't know what to do with it from here but I have to assume they are legally leaving certain drinking water fixtures on because they can't keep the school open without having a drinking water supply. I know the Superintendent has a lawyer on call as he told me he doesn't want to get sued when we met in person and he is required to follow legal advice as he is just doing his job. While it's not his fault he certainly didn't go out of his way in 2018 when the Cashmere School District was asked by DOH to participate in Lead monitoring in the school district drinking water supply and Cashmere schools said no to the request for unknown reasons.

Really I have no clout in any of this and I think they won't do anything more than just above bare minimum unless legally required, but I hope they prove me wrong as my kid’s brain health is at stake. As an older resident of Wenatchee told me:

"You have to do something about this regardless of the Lead rules which don't provide enough public health monitoring or protection because your kids are drinking the Kool Aid."

Just read this article about the history of Lead use on orchards below in Central Washington and you will understand more not only can Lead be in the soil from 80 years ago being sprayed on orchards but Lead also could be coming from pipes or the treatment process, or even as runoff into rivers or infiltration into groundwater wells during times when they don't sample, which is about 1 out of every 1,000 days that they check the system for Lead. Do you really think monitoring 1 out of 1,000 days can determine the source of Lead? https://www.nwpb.org/2015/10/27/former-apple-orchards-leave-behind-a-legacy-of-tainted-dirt/

I was told Cascade, a company in Wenatchee, has historical data on Lead concentrations in groundwater wells of the region but it's difficult to access due to lawyers.

There is no way you can convince me that monitoring about 1 day out of about every 1,000 days is enough to pinpoint the source of Lead in Cashmere. Yes I agree with what you said below my request for data from you is final for now. I assume at this point you have a valid solution for a contractor to build a high tech filtration system to connect your school water outlets to within six months because your monitoring data doesn't conclude anything: it just generates more questions. I think the next step is to stop worrying about laws and what lawyers say and start thinking about long term monitoring solutions and valid infrastructure upgrade solutions.

I know the general trend in the US with these issues is to lawyer up but does that ever solve the problem? I heard AI ChatGPT could take about 50% of lawyers jobs away in the future given the ease for robots to scan the system for legal citations, just like advanced technology can monitor your water quality every minute if you deploy the right device into your water systems. But Central Washington Lead data access is buried deep in the filing cabinets, soil, water and infrastructure of decades of neglect and lack of respect for the importance of thorough research and public outreach to kids and adults that also might be suffering from Lead brain damage and not even know it because the law didn't require the system to be monitored enough to determine sources of Lead until this year even though the Lead has been in the system for perhaps over 100 years.

Getting PhD students to monitor this for you for many years consistently not once every three years, as a long term research project with a Dr. from a University that is a Lead public health expert, is a strong recommendation I have for you regardless of the law. Most PhD students work insane hours for less than $20K a year and an education. Is that too much to ask? 100 years of neglect divided by $20K doesn't seem like much in the scheme of things. Get a young person from Cashmere concerned about this and pay for their PhD to research this issue for you as it is one of the cheapest and effective monitoring solutions available.

I am not here to make enemies being new in a town filled with a legacy of good local people and caring parents but the legacy is also tainted with Lead and the law doesn't always lead you to the right place.

-Guy Ragosta, Cashmere