Throughout the year there have been news stories popping up from state to state about lead contamination in school drinking water. As more school districts face pressure from parents and new regulations to have their water tested, these stories continue to flood in. Here are a few of the most recent:
- After Portland public schools (in Oregon) did work to repair fixtures that revealed elevated levels of lead, some of the fixtures are still testing high for lead
- The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district in North Carolina recently found elevated lead levels in four more schools (after finding elevated levels in 27 of 58 schools tested in the fall)
- Two more schools in the San Diego Unified School District in California, recently reported finding lead in their water above the district’s 5 ppb limit
Expect the new stories about lead in school water supplies to continue in the coming months (and years) as more schools test their water. As these stats show there’s still a lot of room for discovery on this front:
- Only 15 states and the District of Columbia (D.C.) have laws for testing lead in school water (so far)
- Last year, 18 million kids attended schools where the water was NOT tested for lead
- Just 43% of schools tested their water for lead in 2016 & 2017; of those schools more than 1/3 found elevated levels of lead
