“Schools Nationwide Still Grapple With Lead in Water” by
Michael Wines, Patrick McGeehan, and John Schwartz is about how schools are
struggling with lead in their water. The lead amount varies, but often is worst
for the first users of the water each day. The lead comes from aging piping and
infrastructure, most often in schools built before 1986. Although some water
testing found too much lead in years past, such as in Jersey City public
schools, it is not until 2013 that officials started to be proactive about the
problem. The Flint, MI lead contamination controversy is starting a new wave of
concern in schools. Not caused just by aging plumbing, problems also include tight
budgets and loopholes in federal rules. Schools may find it cheaper to just
rely on bottled water instead of trying to replace all of the lead piping.
Other “solutions”, such as filters and overly flushing have not worked. Even
newer schools have a risk of lead because “lead-free” still can contain about
8% lead with Congress’s definition. The best approach would be to remove all of
the lead piping, but most schools can’t afford it. They try to remove the worst
ones each time, though this Is not effective because, as mentioned, lead
content can vary.
One letter is from a teacher, stating that her school’s
custodian warned her to run the faucets a minute or two before use. She is
concerned about the wasting of water and how this problem is not recent – it has
been going on for decades. A second letter says that the funding of fixing the
lead plumbing shouldn’t be completely dependent on local district’s funding or
ability to increase taxes on residents. Cheryl says, “The federal government
cannot keep operating as if each individual school district and each
municipality has the means to handle this alone.” Filnt’s example is good for
her viewpoint, because their own funds were too small to fix it by themselves.
This article was eye-opening and concerning at the same
time. The schools I went to back in PA were older than 1986 for sure, and while
the water seemed okay, who really knew for sure? I would feel safer if testing
was more frequent and included colleges as well.
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