Environment Georgia addresses the Gwinnett County School Board

Advocates call on Gwinnett County School Board to Get the Lead Out

Environment Georgia

Lawrenceville, GA– Environment Georgia gave a statement addressing the Gwinnett County School Board urging them to implement lead testing and proactively install water filtration stations at all Gwinnett County schools. Lead testing is now covered through the Clean Water for Georgia Kids Program that offers free lead testing to K-12 schools and day care centers all around Georgia. Funding for filtered water stations could be available in recovery and infrastructure funds.This statement comes just as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was signed into law. The law sets aside 200 million for schools to eliminate lead in drinking water.

Lead in school drinking water is a danger to children’s health. Lead is a potent neurotoxin that threatens the brain development of young children affecting the way they learn, grow and behave. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), lead exposure greater than 1 ppb is harmful to children and can cause irreversible damage. 

Jennifer Duenas, Clean Water Associate with Environment Georgia issued the following statement: 

“There is no safe level of lead exposure for Gwinnett’s school kids. The bad news is  Georgia has no drinking water standard for lead and no lead testing requirement. But the good news is Gwinnett could take advantage of a free testing program and could act now to secure funding for water bottle filling stations that will filter out any lead contamination problems. We look forward to working with Gwinnett County Schools to ensure children have safe drinking water in the future.”