WATERBORO — When Waterboro Elementary School’s drinking water began failing tests for lead content several years ago, officials at RSU 57 started buying bottled drinking water.

A few years after that, the school department cobbled together grants and other funding to connect the school to the Waterboro Water District.

“From a drinking water perspective, Waterboro (Elementary School) is a new school,” said Superintendent John Davis in an email Thursday night. “…the Waterboro town water system is within the accepted levels for safe drinking water. The school has all new plumbing and it now meets current standards.”

The elementary school was identified by a recent USA Today report on lead levels found in water at 350 public schools and daycare centers across the country.

At one point, according to the USA Today report, the drinking water at the elementary school registered 635 parts per billion in a lead test.

Efforts to fix the problem began in 2012.

At that time, school officials said it appeared the water pipes themselves – and not the water itself – was to blame. The piping system waspart of the school that dated from the late 1970s and an addition from the mid-1980s. Still, they felt a combination of a connection to the public water system and new piping would be the best solution.

As a stop-gap measure until it could hook up to the public water system, the school, which had its own well, ran a temporary above-ground water line from a Waterboro Water District hydrant at Massabesic Middle School to the elementary school. Tests for lead began to show improvement, the school district’s then-business manager, Delano Lebel, said at the time.

Prior to hooking into the public system, the water in the school was used only for flushing toilets. Students and staff had been drinking bottled water for about four years, Lebel estimated in the 2012 interview.

As well as connecting the elementary school to Waterboro Water District and replacing plumbing, the district also installed a water filtration system at another school and replaced faucets at several schools, according to the USA Today report, which also identified lead issues at Shapleigh Memorial School, Line School and Lyman Elementary School.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or [email protected].