Most schools in the U.S. have at least some lead in their pipes, plumbing or fixtures. It’s a problem that can lead to learning disabilities, hearing issues, and other health concerns. A new report called “Get the Lead Out,” released by think tank Environment America and consumer protection group U.S. PIRG., gives a failing grade to Rhode Island and many other states. Massachusetts received a C-, but proposals are being considered there that could advance the grade to an A.
John Rumpler, a co-author of the report, is a Senior Attorney with Environment America Research and Policy Center, along with its state affiliate, Environment Rhode Island. Rumpler spoke with The Public’s Radio’s afternoon host, Dave Fallon, about some key takeaways from the study.
Dave Fallon: First, let’s get into how widespread the lead problem is in school drinking water around the country. Give us a general description of how that study was done, too.
John Rumpler: Most of our schools have lead in their pipes and their plumbing and their fixtures. And so it’s not all that surprising that as schools have tested their water, they’re finding this highly toxic substance in it. We’ve looked at testing data across the country – red states, blue states, rural, suburban, urban, it’s everywhere. We’re finding lead contamination at 50% of the schools in some states, even 50% of the taps tested that our kids are drinking from are finding lead in the water.
Fallon: So, the effects of lead contamination in the schools – describe that.
Rumpler: Lead is toxic to kids at very low levels. We’re talking about impacts on the ways that our kids learn and grow and behave. Lead is a potent neurotoxin. That means it affects the brain. And that’s the last thing that we want parents to have to worry about, is something affecting their brain when their kids are trying to learn at school.
Fallon: So in your study, to get local, Rhode Island received an F score of 23 out of 200. How was that determined? And where does Rhode Island fall flat in fixing the lead contamination in the school drinking water?
Rumpler: Rhode Island got a failing grade because it has absolutely no enforceable law or regulation requiring schools to prevent lead contamination of the water that our kids drink every day. That’s the core problem right there. When you look at our grading, what we did is, we looked at the most effective techniques to prevent lead contamination, such as replacing old fountains with water stations that have filters certified to remove lead, putting those filters on other taps like faucets where kids and faculty and staff and parents may be drinking water or using that water for cooking. And we look to see, how many states are actually mandating those steps? Are they mandating those steps proactively at every tap where our kids could be drinking, or only the places where these highly variable lead tests confirmed the presence of this deadly toxin? And unfortunately, Rhode Island doesn’t even do any of those things. The most it has done is a very meager voluntary testing program. But of course, testing the water doesn’t make it any safer.
Fallon: Moving to Massachusetts, that state received a C-minus in your report because the state, according to the report, is making progress in controlling the lead contamination. Generally, what is Massachusetts doing positively? And Brockton is a good example, according to the report, of being a, not an affluent community, but it really did something about lead contamination.
Rumpler: Yeah, Brockton is one of several Massachusetts communities that are stepping up and doing what it takes to get the lead out. When they found that there was lead contamination, they went around and they replaced several of the fixtures and retested their water and ensured that there was no contamination at the time, to the best that they could. So that’s a good local example of, as you say, a not very affluent community taking its resources and investing in safe drinking water for kids. More broadly, Massachusetts, while it does have only a voluntary program, it is a uniquely robust one. It is one in which the State Department of Environmental Protection has said to school districts: we’re gonna have a voluntary program, but if you get your water tested, you are committing to remediate every single tap down to one part per billion, which is about as low as we can get to zero. It’s the level of lead that the American Academy of Pediatrics is urging school districts to shoot for. So DEP is saying to school districts: the program is voluntary, but if you test, you’ve got to fix the problem, and … in Massachusetts, DEP reports that 72% of school districts are participating in this program.
Fallon: What is the fix now, in terms of what state and local authorities can do, even the citizens and parents, perhaps the federal government?
Rumpler: There’s a role for all of those players, from the federal government down to the school board and individual parents to play, in Rhode Island and across the country. At the state level, let’s start with the state legislature. There’s been a bill in the legislature at least for the last year or two, to require water utilities to remove all of these lead service lines, these toxic lead pipes that are the most significant source of lead contamination in any building, school or childcare center that has them. The Rhode Island legislature should pass that bill with a 10-year deadline, just like New Jersey has done. So that’s one concrete thing with existing legislation that we could immediately do at the Statehouse. We should build on that though, and realize that the problem is not just these lead pipes outside the school. It’s the lead in the faucets and the fountains and so forth that, Dave, we’ve been talking about. So we also need to help school districts get the lead out of their water delivery systems. We need a mandatory scheme to ensure that all of the taps that our kids are drinking from are are flowing with safe water. So those are some things that we can do at the state level. But the good news is that school districts don’t have to wait for the state. They can take action on their own locally, as we have seen in Philadelphia, and Portland, Oregon, and Detroit and San Diego, and as you mentioned earlier, Brockton. All of these and several other school districts have taken the initiative on their own to do things like replace old fountains with new water stations that have filters to get the lead out. So school districts from Woonsocket, to Barrington where I grew up, to Newport, to Westerly, Tiverton – you know, name the community, they can move locally to ensure safer water for kids.
Fallon: John Rumpler is the senior attorney with the Environment America Research and Policy Center, co-author of this extensive report about lead in school drinking water. And John is also working with the state affiliate, Environment Rhode Island. John, thank you.
Rumpler: Thank you so much, Dave.
Fallon: I’m Dave Fallon. This is the public’s radio
Click here for more details on “Get the Lead Out,” a new study that includes a state-by-state report card ranking efforts to remove lead in school drinking water.
