SUMMIT TWP — The Butler School Board Monday night hired a contractor to connect Summit Township Elementary School to a new public water line — and heard a final report about the school's problems with lead and copper in its water.

The board voted to enter into an $18,880 contract with Advanced Contracting of Stoneboro, Mercer County.

Engineering firm Gannett Fleming solicited five quotes for the project and got three responses. Advanced quoted the district the lowest price, said Dan Goncz, vice president of Gannett Fleming.

The work is expected to start within a couple of weeks and take no more than 30 days, excluding the final step of tapping into the public water line.

Pennsylvania American Water Company, according to a letter from vice president of engineering David Kaufman to the district dated Friday, is expecting to begin construction this week on a project to extend service from Hinchberger Road in the township to the intersection of Brinker Road and Bonniebrook Road near the school.

The letter stated that Pennsylvania American expects its contractor to finish installing the pipes by the end of July and that flushing, disinfection and bacteria testing of the new mains will be done by the week of Aug. 14.

This would give them time to get inspected by the state Department of Environmental Protection to secure a public water supply permit before the end of August.

The district still plans to have its teachers and students start the school year at Broad Street Elementary School in Butler so there will be sufficient time to test the water at Summit Elementary to ensure that it is safe before students return.

Goncz said Monday night that Gannett Fleming's recommendation is to flush the school's water system and store the public water in the system for one week before doing an initial test for lead and copper to serve as a baseline.

They would then wait several more weeks before gathering more samples to be tested.

Some of the plumbing fixtures in the school contain lead soldering. The engineers, after investigating the two wells at the school and the school's water system, believe that the well water became more corrosive over time because there are multiple holes in the casing of the one well that was in use, Goncz said.

This allowed surface water and subsurface water, which is more acidic than the ground water the well normally draws from, to enter the school, he said.

This acidity is what caused the lead soldering and copper piping to dissolve into the water, creating lead concentrations above the DEP's actionable level of 15 parts per billion, as was revealed by water tests last August.

Pennsylvania American's water contains a phosphate-based corrosive inhibitor, which will eventually coat the pipes and prevent more lead and copper from getting into the water.

However, it is unknown how long it will take for this coating to go into effect and for the lead and copper levels to go down, which is why multiple rounds of testing may be necessary, he said.

“The lead and copper levels are not something that will go away overnight,” he said.

Gannett Fleming does not expect it will be necessary to replace plumbing inside the school, some of which engineers learned was replaced in 1998.

Replacing all the plumbing and water fixtures in the school was estimated by the district's architect Stantec to cost $250,000, though school board President Nina Teff said Monday that they will seek a new estimate for having only the older plumbing replaced.

According to Goncz's report, connecting to the public water system is a less-expensive option both now and over the course of the next 20 years.

Gannett Fleming estimated that to fix the existing wells, or drill a new one, would cost about $100,000 and to maintain a treatment system and pay an authorized water operator would cost the district $544,000 over the next 20 years.

Switching to public water would include about $40,000 in capital costs, including the $18,880 approved Monday, and $93,000 over the next 20 years in water bills.

The decision to move students back to Summit Township will be made by the school board after seeing test results and hearing the recommendation of its engineering firm, Teff said.

To be ready for when that time comes, staff will be meeting to discuss a transition plan that won't be as rushed as when teachers had to pack up their classrooms to move to Broad Street earlier this year, Assistant Superintendent Brian Slamecka said.

“We don't want it to be helter-skelter. We want it to be a little bit more organized,” he said.