Pennsylvania school water safety laws are outdated, allowing many school districts in the Commonwealth to avoid the necessary steps in combating lead in drinking water.
This was the focus of a new report published by PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center, which found that nine districts across the state, including the Bethlehem Area School District, are coming up short.
At a news conference on Wednesday, PennEnvironment Field Director, Flora Cardoni, said the issue of lead in school drinking water is a large one in Pennsylvania.
“So, a recent study found that over 90% of Pennsylvania school districts had drinking water test positive when they tested in their school buildings.”
Speakers emphasized the negative health impacts of ingesting lead, especially on the developing brain and a young nervous system. Ruth McDermott-Levy, a children’s environmental health expert, said the neurotoxin can also reduce IQ and cause difficulties with speech, behavior, and learning.
The Bethlehem Area School District was noted in the report for violations including inconsistent testing for lead and hindering access to testing results. PennEnvironment also says the BASD likely isn’t meeting the ratio of one drinking fountain per 100 students required by PA state law.
Tara Zrinski, Northampton County Controller and a BASD mom, says the results detailed in the report are alarming.
“I want a letter sent home just like they tell me what my son’s test scores are or when he’s absent from school. I want a letter sent home with an understanding of how much lead is in the water and if anything was found, how it will be remediated. That’s my expectation.”
The other districts included in the report were Altoona, Harrisburg, Hazleton, Norristown, Scranton, Upper Darby, West Chester, and York.
Flora Cardoni highlighted some districts that are leading by example. Pittsburgh Public Schools, the state’s second largest district, recently completed a full replacement of all water fountains with lead-filtering water bottle stations. Philadelphia requires its schools to replace all drinking fountains with lead filtering stations by the end of the year, and the Erie School District recently passed an ordinance requiring a change as well.
Although PennEnvironment hopes every school district would voluntarily protect their students, they emphasize the need for a change in state law to ensure there’s no way around it. They’re calling for mandates that require all school drinking fountains to have lead filters, removal of lead service lines, the allocation of funding for the replacements, and more.
They call this the Filter First Solution, which would be supported under a pending bipartisan proposal, Bill 986 in the Senate and Bill 2011 in the House.
“Every parent should be able to expect that their school district is protecting their kids from the threat of lead in drinking water. It is time to replace Pennsylvania’s lead laden fountains with lead filtering water bottle stations, hydration stations, kitchen sinks, to make sure that our kids are protected in the place that they go to learn and grow.”
PennEnvironment also says making these changes would be doable financially for districts like the BASD. With approximately 14,000 students in the district, about 140 water fountains would be needed district wide to meet the 1:100 water fountain to student ratio. Using the estimated cost of $2,500 per new hydration station, PennEnvironment says the total approximate cost of $350,000 would be less than 1% of the district’s capital improvement budget.
The findings released in the recent report were the result of Right to Know requests submitted to nine of Pennsylvania’s largest school districts.
