Health Consultation - Drinking and Irrigation Water Quality: Blue Ridge Elementary School, Lakeside, Navajo County, AZ

This health consultation evaluates results of irrigation well samples collected by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality in October 2003. Previous results obtained by the Blue Ridge Elementary School District in the summer of 2003 indicated trichloroethylene levels above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Maximum Contaminant Level. In addition, the most recent (2002) Annual Water Quality Report from the drinking water supplier, Arizona Water Company, was reviewed. A previous health consultation (Blue Ridge Elementary School, Lakeside, Navajo County, Arizona Health Consultation-April 30, 2003) reviewed environmental conditions at Blue Ridge Elementary School. Parents and school staff were concerned that environmental exposures were causing students to be absent from school. Drinking water quality reports, indoor air quality data, food safety, environmental sanitation records, student attendance rates, and the results of an annual parent satisfaction survey were evaluated in the consultation. Arizona Department of Health Services concluded that environmental conditions at Blue Ridge Elementary School posed no apparent public health hazard, and that attendance rates were similar to statewide attendance rates. As part of the 2003 health consultation, ADHS requested that the school district conduct water sampling from the on-site irrigation water wells for the school grounds. Those sampling results were not available when the 2003 health consultation was completed.