RELEASE: New study shows Pennsylvania school districts fail to protect children from lead in school drinking water

HARRISBURG, Pa. –The statewide nonprofit group PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center released a new study on Wednesday showing how Pennsylvania school districts regularly expose children to lead in school drinking water by violating state law, skirting reporting requirements and ignoring best practices. The study uncovered shortcomings at 9 school districts across the state.

“Pennsylvania’s school water safety laws are sorely outdated. We know a lot more about the dangers of lead than we used to, so it’s absurd how many schools aren’t using current best practices to ensure our kids’ safety,” noted PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center’s Executive Director David Masur.  “It’s time to dump ‘Test and Fix” since it’s clearly not working. Instead, it’s time to replace all Pennsylvania’s lead-laden fountains with lead-filtering water bottle filling stations and fountains.”

Health experts are clear that lead is unsafe at any level. Yet the group’s new study, Lead in School Drinking Water: How Pennsylvania school districts and the commonwealth are failing to protect children’s health, found districts regularly violating state laws and best practices, including:

• Hindering access to lead testing results;
• Failing to test school drinking fountains for potential lead contamination as required under Pennsylvania law;
• Failing to test an adequate number of drinking outlets to detect potential lead contamination;
• Failing to provide positive test results to the Pennsylvania Department of Education as required by state law;
• Using loopholes in Pennsylvania’s existing requirements to avoid testing and reporting for lead;
• And failing to provide sufficient access to drinking water as required under state law. 

Here is the full list of our findings by school district:

The findings released in the new study are based on data collected through a series of Right-to-Know requests submitted to nine of Pennsylvania largest school districts. They reinforce the “F” grade that PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center gave to Pennsylvania in a recent report on drinking water and lead.

Based on these findings, the PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center is calling on members of the General Assembly to immediately implement a pending bipartisan proposal (Senate Bill 986 and House Bill 2011) that would require all Pennsylvania school districts to replace old drinking fountains that pose a risk of lead contamination with lead-filtering water bottle filling stations and drinking fountains. The legislation also includes funding to help Pennsylvania school districts cover the cost of these much-needed upgrades to protect kids’ health. 

The group also recommends that individual school districts across the state voluntarily replace all old drinking fountains currently installed in their buildings with lead-filtering water bottle filling stations and lead-filtering drinking fountains in order to properly protect school children from the threat of lead. 

“If school districts won’t voluntarily implement the widely accepted best practices for protecting our children, then it’s urgent that our elected officials in Harrisburg move swiftly to implement a statewide solution to this well-documented problem,” noted Masur. “It’s time to get the lead out and pass Senate Bill 986, which will ensure safe drinking water for our children.” 

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The PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center is dedicated to protecting our air, water and open spaces. We work to protect the places we love, advance the environmental values we share, and win real results for our environment. For more information, visit www.pennenvironmentcenter.org.