Here’s how local school districts are tackling lead exposure

It's a topic that has made headlines for decades.

"Lead exposure is one of the most common reasons for induced developmental delay. So, in other words, if a child is exposed to lead, they can have development delay in the future," said Dr. Joseph Aracri with Allegheny Health Network.

Now as the Environmental Protection Agency makes a push to improve the quality of drinking water, some said the federal effort to replace all lead service lines doesn't go far enough to protect students.

Butler Area School District is no stranger to problems with lead.

"Unfortunately, there was well water in one of the elementary schools that eventually was determined to have high levels of lead," said Superintendent Brian White.

That crisis led to big changes at the school district including annual testing and remediation as White wants transparency to be at the forefront of this problem.

"Anything involving children, parents want to know what's going on and particularly when it comes to health and safety matters they want to be able to make decisions on what's happened," White said.

But that's not the case across the board. In a report card by PennEnvironment, Pennsylvania received an "F" for the policies in place when it comes to lead in schools.

"While Pennsylvania has a few laws on the books that are weak. So weak that they sometimes become misleading when it comes to sharing results, there is nothing about solutions that are required to protect kids," said David Masur, the Executive Director of PennEnvironment.

Although few schools have taken it upon themselves to find that solution, Pittsburgh Public Schools has spent the last eight years taking a "Filter First" approach.

"Given the wide use of plumbing products such as lead-containing solders in building construction and renovation industries, until recently, we determined that the most effective, feasible and best available technology to provide clean water that is free of lead and other contaminants to provide filtered drinking water fountains," said Sanjeeb Manandhar, the Environmental Sustainability Manager at Pittsburgh Public Schools.

The eight-year $5.5 million project was just completed with 948 filtered water fountains, 411 bottle filling stations and 188 filtered drinking outlets at select sinks like Early Childhood and the nurse's offices.

"This is our lead filter that is in all of our water fountains," said Manandhar.

It's a standard that has now become a state mandate in all Michigan schools following the Flint water crisis.

"If it's scientifically better, who am I to oppose it? My question would be, who's paying for all the filters? There has got to be a cost with that, and most districts don't even have the money to switch to fixtures with filters. We are fortunate to have done it in many cases but not all. We are still progressing," White said.

That's the holdup in Pennsylvania. Bipartisan bills for both the Senate and House are sitting in the Education Committee that would require schools to replace old drinking fountains with lead filtering stations in the next three years.

The hope is to get grant funding to help get the schools to the goal.

"Cost is always a barrier. Anytime you pass these laws, we don't want to put unfunded mandates on school districts. So, we have to come up with what we estimate to be about $30 million in the budget. We have to find that money," said Allegheny County Senator Devlin Robinson.

Now if it will happen is ultimately up to the lawmakers in the state capital.

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