Lead in Schools’ Drinking Water Across U.S. – Does the EPA Need to Act?

• Schools across the country are struggling to deal with elevated lead levels in their drinking water; last week, the Detroit public school system shut off water across the district, just as kids were going back to school.
• There’s no national standard for safe lead concentrations in school drinking water.
• More than 40 percent of schools aren’t testing for it at all.

Health effects

Lead exposure can affect nearly every system in the body, and there’s no safe level of lead in blood for children, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines.

Children are particularly susceptible to lead toxicity. Exposure can lead to cognitive impairment, heart and kidney disease, and reduced fertility, among other effects.

Existing standards

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set its action level of 15 parts per billion (ppb) for lead in tap water from public water systems decades ago. The action level isn’t based on a safe exposure level for children, but rather to monitor a water system’s efforts to manage water corrosivity and minimize lead leaching from old pipes.

The EPA’s voluntary guidance for schools, set in the 1990s, recommends that schools take action if lead exceeds 20 ppb, which is one-third higher than the action level for public water systems.

In 2009, California set a public health goal for lead in drinking water at 0.2 ppb to protect against harms to the brains and nervous systems of children. California’s goal is not enforceable.

Last month, the Government Accountability Office released a report showing that more than 40 percent of U.S. school districts fail to test their drinking water for lead.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) wants the government to set a protective legal limit for lead in drinking water, “as it does for other contaminants under the Safe Drinking Water Act.” The group also wants the EPA to require more aggressive monitoring and remediation for lead.

EWG maintains a searchable national drinking water database that provides information about contamination in the tap water of most people in the U.S.

What do you think?

Should the EPA implement stricter rules for lead in drinking water? Why or why not? Hit Take Action to tell your reps what you think, then share your thoughts below.

—Sara E. Murphy

(Photo Credit: iStock.com / Crystaleyestudio)