Environment Massachusetts urges lawmakers to “get the lead out” of schools’ drinking water

This week, Environment Massachusetts’s Clean Water Director, John Rumpler, urged lawmakers on Beacon Hill to get the lead out of drinking water at schools and child care facilities. 

Lead was detected in the water at more than 80 percent of taps tested at schools and child care centers in Massachusetts, according to data from the Department of Environmental Protection.  This presents a widespread threat to children’s health, as even low levels of lead harm kids, including links to nervous system damage, stunted growth,  ADHD, antisocial behavior and depression. 

On June 3rd, Rumpler testified before the state legislature’s Joint Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources in support  of An Act ensuring safe drinking water in schools, (H991 & S631) filed by state Sen. Joan B. Lovely (Salem) and State Rep. Kate Lipper-Garabedian (Melrose) to get the lead out of the taps in our schools and childcare centers. He noted that a dozen other states already have at least some mandatory requirements for schools to take action on lead in water.

“Our kids deserve clean, safe drinking water — especially at school, where they go to learn and play each day,” said John Rumpler, Clean Water Program Director, Environment Massachusetts. “Instead of lagging behind year after year, it’s time for the Bay State to rise to the head of the class with a law that stops the pervasive lead contamination of schools’ drinking water.”

At the hearing, Senator Lovely cited Environment Massachusetts Research and Policy Center’s  2023 Get The Lead Out report,  which gave Massachusetts a C- grade for its lack of a statewide requirement to prevent lead contamination of schools’ drinking water.

An Act ensuring safe drinking water in schools requires schools and childcare centers to install water filling stations – or filters on faucets used for drinking or cooking – certified to remove lead when at least one tap in the school has been found to contain lead. The bill is supported by many organizations including MASSPIRG, Massachusetts PTA, Massachusetts Public Health Association, and the Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts.