MILWAUKEE - An exclusive I-TEAM health investigation. Toxic water in our children's schools. What is the risk and what's being done to fix the problem?

Hundreds of schools in the U.S., including dozens in Wisconsin, have chemicals or contaminants in their drinking water that violate EPA standards. It's a problem that will be expensive, if not impossible, to fix.

First graders at Lakeview Elementary have everything they need for class. Books, pencils, bottled water? Two years ago this school in Wind Lake found out its drinking water is toxic. The school's well is contaminated with arsenic. Enough to concern the Environmental Protection Agency.

"Obviously our primary goal is to make sure that we have a safe water supply," Principal Dawn Marisch told us. So, she turned off the water fountains and brought in the water coolers.

Related Links:
-List of Wisconsin schools with contaminated water
-Facts about arsenic
-Testing private wells for contaminents

Those coolers are fun for students, but more importantly, they're the only source of clean water at Lakeview.

You would need repeated exposure to the water, but over time, arsenic can have toxic side effects in the body. According to Associate Professor Ramani Ramchandran with the Medical College of Wisconsin/Children's Hospital, "You can have some sort of cardiac arrhythmia or hypertension. There are also some reports of neural defects..there is definitely a skin cancer, is one other component."

Studies also show it's associated with lung and bladder cancer and adult onset diabetes. And here's an alarming fact. Up until 2006, the EPA did not regulate school's water systems for arsenic.

Right now 20 schools in our area are dealing with water contaminated with high levels of coliform bacteria or arsenic. One of the reasons for a stricter guideline from the EPA. The standard for arsenic levels used to be 50 parts per billion. After a large number of studies found significant risks below that level, the EPA went to 10 parts per billion.

At Merton Primary in Hartland, these days they're more worried about the swine flu than the water. After five years, the water fountains are back on. The school's old well tested positive for arsenic levels in the mid-20's.

Getting back to clean water was a long and costly process for the district. They tried to drill a new well, that water was still contaminated. After abandoning two wells, Merton Primary ended up tapping into the well of another school on the property. "Drill and lay the pipe to come all the way over here. All those were expenses we had to bear," Superintendent Mark Flynn told us.

Back at Lakeview, the coolers won't be around much longer. They've finally found a solution and will soon be drinking from the water fountains again.

The school board approved a filtration system. It will take arsenic levels at Lakeview from 20 parts per billion down to just four.