DURHAM - The only option for fixing a problem with lead in the water at Y.E. Smith Elementary School is to replace the water lines at a cost of $180,000, administrators say.

A dozen drinking fountains at the school have been cut off since 2004, when high levels of lead were found in the school's water system. Some water sources had as many as 600 times the amount of lead that the Environmental Protection Agency deems safe.

Since then, the school has been providing bottled water to all students and faculty. Engineers at Y.E. Smith repeatedly have flushed the pipes and have replaced valves and other parts of the water supply system. But additional tests showed the efforts made little impact on the lead content.

The proposal to replace the pipes is one of five school improvements the district wants to make using money from a $1.8 million allotment for improvements it received this year from the state.

The four other projects include fixing parking areas at Northern High School and Oak Grove and Southwest elementaries, and replacing the roof over the library at Brogden Middle School, which leaks during rainstorms, said Hugh Osteen, assistant superintendent of operations.

On Monday, Osteen briefed some members of the Durham school board on the proposed improvements. The board will vote on the projects at its regular meeting next week.

Replacing all the water-supply lines at Y.E. Smith can almost guarantee the lead problem will be eliminated, Osteen said.

"We feel like that's the right move to make ... so we can have an error-free situation," he said.

Lead, when ingested in large amounts, can cause developmental problems and brain damage in children. In more serious cases, lead poisoning can cause coma and even death.

Y.E. Smith is not the only school that has had problems with lead.

Just before the start of this academic year, a new round of tests at all older Durham public schools identified eight more buildings with toxic water. At the same time, lead problems also were showing up at dozens of homes across Durham.

City officials said they thought the use of the chemical ferric chloride in the city's water-treatment process could have been to blame for problems in the schools and in neighborhoods. The substance could have leached lead from the plumbing systems of homes predating 1986, the year that lead was banned from use in solder and other plumbing materials.

The city stopped using ferric chloride in water treatment four months ago, but officials still are asking residents to use caution, including flushing out stagnant water by running their faucets for several minutes before using them.

The risk at schools other than Y.E. Smith with unsafe water has been eliminated, Osteen said. Potentially dangerous drinking fountains have been cut off, and officials are waiting to determine what action to take. Students at Northern High School also are having to drink bottled water.

Attacking the problem at Y.E. Smith, the school with the most widespread problem, was a priority, Osteen said.

"We've got to make a move here to get away from the bottled water," he said.

The school board will vote Nov. 16 on the Y.E. Smith project and the four other school improvements, totaling about $1.4 million. That would leave about $400,000 in the pool of money Durham officials got from the state for the year for such projects.

If the school board approves the efforts, the district will need backing from county commissioners before construction gets under way, Osteen said.

"We'll just have to wait and see," he said.