Zurn Elkay Water Solutions announced a five-year support agreement with Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) to convert existing MPS drinking fountains and bottle filling stations to Elkay filtration.
Zurn Elkay also announced that it had donated $2.2 million worth of its Elkay drinking water filters.
In an event with kindergarten students at Starms Early Childhood Center, 2616 W. Garfield St., Mayor Cavalier Johnson, MPS Superintendent Dr. Keith P. Posley and Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Chairman and CEO Todd A. Adams celebrated the signing of the five-year support agreement between MPS and Zurn Elkay.
As part of the agreement to convert all existing MPS drinking fountains and bottle filling stations to Elkay filtration, Zurn Elkay will donate to MPS up to 3,250 filters annually through the 2027-28 school year to ensure that MPS’s drinking fountains and bottle filling stations stay filtered, giving students, staff and community members access to safer, cleaner water at school.
“The health and safety of our students is a top priority for Milwaukee Public Schools. The district began filtering water in our schools seven years ago,” Dr. Posley said. “Zurn Elkay’s generous gift to MPS will help ensure that students and staff all across the district continue to have the safest possible drinking water.”
Elkay drinking fountains and bottle filling stations are manufactured in Illinois, and its filters are tested and certified to NSF/ANSI 42 and 53 to reduce lead and other harmful contaminants. Since 2012, use of Elkay bottle filling stations has avoided the use of more than 76 billion single-use plastic bottles.
“For kids in Milwaukee and all across the country, school buildings are more than a place for education and social development: they’re a primary source of drinking water, and Zurn Elkay is here to help schools provide the cleanest, safest drinking water we can,” Adams said. “As a proud, Milwaukee-based company, we’re grateful that MPS has trusted Zurn Elkay with the opportunity to help ensure every MPS student, teacher and staff member has access to safer, cleaner drinking water.”
In 2016, MPS voluntarily began testing drinking water in all of its facilities. Following the test results, MPS announced that all schools in the district would be provided with filtration for their water fountains. The partnership announcement reflects an expansion of this commitment, with MPS using federal ESSER funding to purchase an additional 700 Elkay bottle filling stations, increasing its total count of Elkay filtered drinking fountains and bottle filling stations to more than 3,200.
