In light of last month’s Associated Press report showing Galesburg has consistently exceeded Environmental Protection Agency action standards for lead levels in drinking water, Knox College tested water throughout the liberal arts campus.
Knox Vice President for Finance and Administrative Services Keith Archer says testing results were all “well below” EPA action levels.
He tells WGIL even though 95 percent of the school does not have lead service lines, testing was conducted on all campus buildings and action is being taken.
“We have determined that we had 11 buildings with older service lines,” Archer says. “And we will be changing those lines out this summer, but all of those buildings also tested below the action level.”
Archer says the entirety of campus was tested as a precaution.
“We tested all of our buildings because I’m not always sure that everyone knows for certain which type of service is in a building,” he says. “We did the visual inspection and felt like we identified the lead ones, but wanted to go ahead and test all the water on campus just to make sure we were 100 percent safe.”
He did not have an immediate estimate for the cost of replacing campus water lines.
