Students in Bucks County are among those across the state that are exposed to lead levels in sinks and drinking fountains due to Pennsylvania’s optional lead testing regulation.
PennEnvironment Research and Policy Center reported earlier this month school’s have been slow to act under the loose regulation and that stronger policies are needed at the state and federal level. Act 39, passed in 2018, says school district’s may test for lead levels to the state and if they do not test then it must be discussed at a public meeting annually.
David Masur, executive director at PennEnvironment and co-author of the report, said the law was well-intentioned, but poorly written.
The report also found 90 percent of the Pennsylvania school districts testing for lead were reporting lead contamination. School districts in Bucks County are no exception. Central Bucks, Pennsbury, Centennial, and Pennridge have reported high levels of lead in school water fountains and sinks.
Through Right-to-Know requests, PennEnvironment discovered nine of Pennsylvania’s largest school districts are failing to uphold proper testing and procedure. This includes failing to both test and discuss lead issues at meetings, providing sufficient access to drinking water, making test results difficult to find, failing to publish results to the PDE website, and testing only a few outlets.
“You realize there’s 500 school districts across Pennsylvania, and you know that many of them have many schools, you just look at that Excel chart and go, ‘oh my god, clearly, this is, like, a small percentage of all the districts,’” Masur said.
The amended code also says school districts are to implement a remediation plan if levels are above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s maximum contaminant level goal set at zero. However, the PA’s Department of Education website claims school’s are to implement a plan if levels exceed the EPA’s national primary drinking water standard, 15 parts per billion (ppb).
The Bucks County schools reporting results have reported levels well above 15 ppb. The schools indicate a remediation plan, but updated water quality results are unclear. Some updated quality results indicate a reduction in lead levels below 15 ppb, but still indicate levels above the goal of zero.
“It doesn’t require them to fix the problem, they didn’t require them to put detailed info,” Masur siad. “All of these, they’re going back and testing, but still finding lead.”
Masur and PennEnvironment said schools are not following best practices and using the “test and fix” method to combat lead levels instead of the “filter first” method. This method replaces all the water fountains with lead-filtering water fountains.
“It’s actually pretty easy and fast, and it’s very cheap,” Masur said. “It’s actually cheaper than testing over the long term because testing is, really to do it correctly, is very expensive.”
PennEnvironment is pushing for Senate Bill 986 which would require all school districts to replace water fountains with certified point-of-use filters. Masur said lead is a moving contaminant and spot fixing with testing and replacing can build up costs.
“So some years you may find no lead in the drinking. Down in the next year, you will find lead. So now you have to replace, you know, you’re just playing whack a mole,” Masur said.
In addition to mandating the installation of filtered drinking fountains and water bottle filling stations, PennEnvironment says statewide policies need to require full replacement of all lead service lines, mandate the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommended limit of 1 ppb, and allocate funding to pay for replacements.
Masur said SB 986 includes $30 million in funding to help school districts pay, but that the mandate is necessary to drive the school districts into action.
“There is funding today, and the school districts don’t apply for it because they don’t feel any urgency to fix the problem,” Masur said.
Now, eligible schools and childcare facilities can receive free water lead testing and training through the Pennsylvania Voluntary Lead in Child Care and School Drinking Water Testing Program launched by Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PENNVEST).
Masur thinks the districts like the ones in Bucks County can take a look at PennEnvironment’s report and solve the problem themselves.
“These school districts should be able to take … the funds either just through their capital budget and go, we want to protect our kids from lead in school drinking water,” Masur said.
