A bill aiming to improve drinking water quality in New York schools will be delivered to Gov. Andrew Cuomo for approval after it passed in both the state senate and assembly.
The legislation will improve water quality in schools by targeting lead contamination, reported Staten Island Advance. This will be done by; strengthening water testing requirements for lead; increasing the frequency of testing; removing testing exemptions; and lowering lead action levels.
“Experts agree that there is no safe level of lead for children, and high levels of lead can be even more devastating for them,” said Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie in a press release. ”This legislation would ensure that appropriate testing is done on a regular basis with no exceptions, and that the data collected is made public and any issues are remedied.”
This legislation would mitigate lead contamination in school drinking water by:
- Increasing required school water testing frequency for lead from “periodic” to triennial;
- Requiring that safe drinking water be provided by schools districts to school occupants free of charge if lead is detected;
- Removing testing exemptions for certain schools;
- Setting the lead action level at 0.005 milligrams per liter;
- Requiring that laboratory reports be made public as a part of existing disclosure requirements for testing results; and
- Providing remediation funding through clean water infrastructure programs.
It also adds a funding mechanism by authorizing the use of clean water infrastructure funds.
“Children are especially vulnerable to lead exposure,” said Health Committee Chair Richard N. Gottfried, in the press release. “There is no safe blood lead level for children, and we should do everything we can to reduce lead in school drinking water to the lowest possible level. New York should be a leader in water safety and environmental health. The environmental, public health and school communities have done terrific work in developing and fighting for this bill, and I thank Speaker Heastie for his support.”
According to Staten Island Advance, the city Department of Education (DOE) began testing every fixture in every public school across the five boroughs, with more than 140,000 fixtures tested over the course of 2018 to 2020.
The DOE implements a standard response protocol if a water outlet is above the action level, 15 ppb of lead. Current state law currently requires New York City to test the water in schools for lead every five years, reported Staten Island Advance.
