Photo of Avi shortly after getting the test results back from testing the school’s water.
Sent to Senator Kathaleen Taylor & Representative Karin Power
Date Sent: June 4, 2019
Dear Rep Power and Senator Taylor,
I am contacting you because Sellwood Middle School is in your district.
I wanted to bring to your attention an excellent piece of work by 14 year old citizen scientist, Avi Rubin, where he published test results from two water fountains labeled SAFE TO DRINK in his school.
You can read it here:
His test samples (sent to a lab specializing in testing lead in water) showed that the water from the fountains contained 14 times and 27 times MORE LEAD that the American Academy of Pediatrics’ guideline for safe levels of lead in water.
The second sample was nearly twice as high as the less strict federal level of permissible lead in water – this water would not be considered safe to drink by anyone following any standard and yet has been labeled “safe to drink” and Avi says staff encourage kids to drink from this foundation that is outputting water with toxic levels of lead.
That highly leaded water is still coming out of fountains being labeled “safe to drink” is an EMERGENCY.
Is there anything you can do as a house rep and senator to see meaningful change happen here to help keep kids at this school safe from toxic amounts of lead in their drinking water? I am also concerned that if PPS has labeled these specific fountains as “safe to drink” that more schools and more fountains are affected.
Clearly PPS has not handled this appropriately (and indeed has a history of sweeping issues with toxic amounts of lead under the rug) so I think intervention at the state level would be 100% appropriate at this point.
I have CC’d Avi’s mother, Tamara Rubin, on this email to help facilitate you getting in touch with her if you are interested in doing so.
Thanks for your service to Oregon and I hope you can help!
Carissa Bonham
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