South Kitsap School District will begin to voluntarily monitor lead and copper in drinking water at its schools prior to the Washington state mandated four-year timeline for all school districts.

Staff members from the SKSD’s facilities and operations department were trained and certified by Centric Analytical Labs, LLC to collect samples, the school district said in a news release.

The sampling was conducted during the last weeks of November and early December. SKSD received preliminary testing results that indicated 24 fixtures out of the district’s 790 fixtures tested exhibited irregular levels of lead exceeding the acceptable parts per million. Only the listed fixtures require further action, the remainder of the buildings tested “no further action required.”

Location and number of affected fixtures:

Manchester Elementary: 3; Hidden Creek Elementary: 2; East Port Orchard Elementary: 1; Madrona Heights: 1; Burley Glenwood Elementary: 1; South Colby Elementary: 3; Orchard Heights Elementary: 1; John Sedgwick Junior High: 8; South Kitsap High School: 1.

The affected drinking water and food preparation fixtures have been isolated, brought offline and tagged to prevent use, according to the district. Each fixture will be retested to confirm the validity of the initial test. If the follow-up test confirms the initial result, the fixture will be replaced and/or re-plumbed until testing reports safe and acceptable levels, according to district spokeswoman Amy Miller.

After resolving the issues with affected fixtures, SKSD said that from now on, it will conduct testing every five years.