BREMERTON — A big concern people have had lately about their drinking water is lead; but here in Kitsap County, there isn’t much cause for concern.

Keith Grellner, director of environmental health for Kitsap Public Health, said unlike the situation in Flint, Michigan, which brought lead in drinking water to the forefront of many people’s minds, the source water Kitsap County uses is clean.

“There, what happened was, they changed their water source, and the water source that they changed to wasn’t being treated adequately,” Grellner said. “Here in Kitsap, we don’t have that problem with our large water sources.”

But does that mean there’s no chance of lead in drinking water? Not necessarily.

Throughout Kitsap County, and in Bremerton especially, there are older homes, with older pipe systems that may have a higher percentage of lead. This doesn’t affect the source water, but there can be some leaching of lead into the water that sits in the pipes for extended periods of time, Grellner said.

For example, when a household goes to sleep for the night, there is water sitting in the pipes for hours; when the first person turns on the faucet in the morning, the water that immediately comes out is the highest risk for contamination.

“When people wake up in the morning and they turn on the faucet, they should let it run for 15 to 30 seconds,” Grellner said. “That flushing, getting the stagnant water out of the fixtures and getting that fresh water from outside the building, you remove the majority of possible exposure you could get by flushing that water out.”

Grellner suggested sticking a finger into the flow of water when you first turn it on in the morning. “Once you feel the temperature change (generally the initial stream of water sitting in the pipes will be close to room temperature), that means the stagnant water is gone, and fresh water is coming in.”

But this issue is not at all common in Kitsap. Generally, this is a concern only for older houses with old pipes. In the 1980s, a Federal law was implemented restricting the use of lead in pipes.

“Most of the products that are available now and that buildings are constructed out of now, (low-lead-level products are the only type of products they can get,” Grellner said. However, “even those products now … if there’s any kind of brass fitting — which most plumbing fixtures have brass in them — there’s going to be some level of lead.

“It’s impossible to get away from it totally.”

Young children are at the most risk, Grellner said, but there have only been around 20 cases of elevated blood-lead levels in Kitsap County since 2008, and water usually isn’t the problem.

“Based on the data that we have, water so far has been the least likely source of exposure for lead,” Grellner said. “Where we’ve been finding children with elevated blood-lead levels, which have mostly been centered around Bremerton … typically, it was either lead-based paint, lead in the soil or there was another family member who had either a hobby or occupation where they were exposed to lead, and that’s where the source of lead was for the child.”

Grellner said that old houses are also more likely to have lead paint. While it’s likely houses that old have been repainted, there have been cases where the house has the original paint, which may be chipping and could be inadvertently ingested by young children.

“If you’re living in a rental or an older home, that would be the first place we recommend people look at, the paint,” Grellner said. “Give it a fresh coat of paint. Vaccuum up any old chipping paint and then put a fresh coat of paint on there and cover it up.”

He added, “Look at occupations and hobbies or old buildings, where that’s the most likely exposure to lead. And if people are concerned, they should go to their doctors and be evaluated.”

Another reason some people have been concerned about the drinking water, though, is the recent effort by school districts around Puget Sound to test the water in some of their older buildings for elevated lead levels, Grellner said.

In 2009, a state law was adopted by the Washington State Board of Health, which would require all school districts to regularly test their water for lead. However, right after that law was passed, Grellner said the legislature overruled the implementation of that rule until there was enough money in the budget to cover it. Some school districts have been testing the water voluntarily on their own anyway, to ensure safety for the students.

To accurately test school drinking water, districts need to collect samples when school is in session, but first thing in the morning before the stagnant water is flushed from the fixtures, Grellner said. If elevated lead levels are found, the affected fixtures would need to be taken out of service, especially if it’s used for drinking or cooking. Then the fixture would be replaced with a low-lead fixture, “and then start the sampling routine again to see if replacing the fixture was enough to remove the lead.”

Grellner said the heath district recommends everyone use the flushing technique if there is concern about lead, at home, at work and at school.

“We have exposures to lots of different things in the environment, in our houses and buildings, that can impact our health. Lead is definitely one ofthose things,” Grellner said. “Lead is known, especially for our young children, whose bodies are still developing, lead can be toxic.

“In a perfect world, we would all have zero exposure to lead, but in a civilized environment … it’s impossible to get away from it. Lead is in pipes, lead is in fixtures, lead is in old paint, lead is in automobiles, hobbies, jewelry. You can never escape it totally, but you can minimize exposure.”

Anyone concerned about elevated lead levels in their water can go to www.kitsapcounty health.com/information/lead_resources.php to learn about getting samples tested.

“To sum up, lead is definitely a concern, especially for young children,” Grellner said, “but lead is everywhere, so we want people to be cognizant that … typically around here, water is going to be one of the least likely sources. That’s what we want people to understand.”