It's a question that's especially on the minds of residents in Greentown, a small town just north of Indianapolis, where recent tests showed slightly elevated levels of lead in some of the water.
School and county leaders there are proceeding with an abundance of caution.
School Corporation Spending $400 A Day On Bottled Water
Dozens of containers of bottled water are stacked in the middle of the main office at Eastern Howard High School.
"Our children are probably more hydrated than they've ever been," says Eastern Howard School Corporation Superintendent Tracy Caddell.
It's been this way since test results came back in January, revealing elevated levels of lead in some of the school corporation's water.
The EPA's lead action level is 15 parts per billion or higher. Tests came back with levels at 20 parts per billion in a high school classroom and 22 parts per billion at a Kindergarten water fountain.
"That raised some concerns, although it's not a Flint, Michigan situation," Caddell says. "In Flint they had levels of 13,00 parts per billion in some cases."
The school corporation shut off its water fountains and for a couple of days even forbade students from washing their hands in the schools' sinks.
Until levels dip back down below the allowable limit, the corporation is spending $400 a day to provide bottled water for drinking and cooking.
"We're going to keep spending the money until we get the all clear from the health department," Caddell says.
He's providing weekly updates to families with a recorded phone call. The corporation is also posting all information about the water situation on its website.
The schools teamed up with the Howard County Health Department last week to offer free lead testing for students and staff.
They tested over 600 people.
"We do expect some levels to be elevated but we really think the level of elevation will be from the home environment from a lead-based paint source, which is really our greatest problem with lead more than a water source," says Howard County Licensed Lead Risk Assessor Karen Long.
Long says lead-based paint accounts for about 80 percent of their problems with lead.
Water Testing Offered For Greentown Water Customers
Elevated levels of lead aren't confined to the classrooms.
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management found elevated levels of lead in November while doing routine testing on some Greentown homes and businesses.
The town is already taking steps to correct the issue, asking IDEM for an emergency construction permit to install a polyphosphate injection system. They started using it earlier this month.
"What happens with the water when it goes through the pipes, just because of aging the pipes may contain lead, the lead, just because of normal corrosion, may leak into the water," says Howard County Health Officer Howard Zent. "When you add phosphate to the water it helps to stabilize and stop that corrosive process and the leaching of the lead."
The county health department is offering free testing for Greentown water customers who live in homes built before 1986 – that's when new laws about lead-based plumbing were enacted.
They already had about 25 people come in for a test kit.
I think it's important for folks to be able to determine what their lead level is for their own comfort.
"I think it's important for folks to be able to determine what their lead level is for their own comfort," says Public Health Nursing Manager Jennifer Sexton.
It could take some time for the town's new polyphosphate injection system to bring lead levels back down. Even so, the health department says Greentown water is safe to drink.
The local school corporation just isn't taking any chances.
They're installing filtration systems on all of their drinking fountains – a project that will cost about $13,000.
