News Update
Legislation Urges Florida to Provide Clean Water in Schools
Enviro.net
Organization
The Get the Lead Out Florida Coalition has urged the Florida Legislature to get lead out of school drinking water, according to WMNF and Florida Politics. Testing for lead in public schools is optional.
New companion bills in the legislature would ensure safe water for students. Lakey Love of Physicians for Social Responsibility Florida said more than half of Florida schools that have been tested revealed a positive test for lead.
“So, it is perfectly legal in the state of Florida to have high levels of lead in school drinking water,” Love said. “And our schools are not required to test.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control, there’s “no safe blood level,” for lead in children. The proposed legislation would install a clean water bottle filling station for every 100 students. It would also install filters for water used to cook meals for students. Federally subsidized Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Fund would cover costs.
Sen. Gary Farmer of Fort Lauderdale and Rep. Angie Nixon of Jacksonville have sponsored the legislation. The measures (SB 1648 and HB 1245) would circumvent testing.
Schools must also install similar filters on all on-campus drinking water sources before the 2023-2024 school year, including those located within a cafeteria.
“Lead is a potent neurotoxin affecting children’s learning, growth, and behavior,” Nixon said. “Children in schools, many low-income and Black communities all across this state, are at risk of being poisoned simply by drinking water out of a fountain they falsely assume will be safe.”
Love agrees.
“Our legislation goes straight to the solution,” Love said. “Bypassing expensive testing because we know that there’s lead in drinking water and schools, especially schools that were built before 2014.”
In 2018, theTampa Bay Times reported that the Hillsborough School District found high levels of lead in drinking water at several schools. The district didn’t tell parents about the findings for more than 16 months, ignoring federal regulations to disclose. Lakey says people assume this issue was dealt with years ago, but it wasn’t.
“This lead issue is an issue,” Love said. “It’s a crisis issue. And it’s happening in 2022 and has not been dealt with.”
Love said if the legislation doesn’t get passed, the federal funding available now goes away.
“Our legislature gets to budget that money,” Love said. “This is the year. We’ve been waiting for decades to get the lead out of drinking water and stop poisoning our children. And this year, we get to do it without spending one dollar of state funding.”
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), lead exposure — even in low levels — can prove harmful to children. It can damage the nervous system and slow development.
Proponents of the measure note many schools in Florida were built before the EPA decreased the acceptable lead standard in pipes from 8% to 0.25% in 2020.
“Many people in Florida just assume their children have safe access to drinking water while in school,” said Dr. Howard Kessler of Physicians for Social Responsibility Florida. “Our greatest struggle has been educating people to let them know that most districts in Florida still have toxic levels of lead poisoning in school drinking and cooking water. 2022 is the year to catch up to people’s assumptions and get the job done.”