The Senate education committee Friday passed a bill that would provide immediate funding to expedite lead testing and lower acceptable lead levels in tap water in Vermont’s schools.
The proposal would require school districts, independent schools and child care providers to test their drinking water for lead in the next year. Schools must also reduce contamination if water tests above a new state lead limit set lower than federal guidelines.
The push to swiftly institute statewide lead testing comes after the completion of a school lead testing pilot program at 16 schools last fall.
At least three taps in every school in the pilot, or 17 percent of taps tested, had lead levels higher than the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended maximum of 1 parts per billion.
Gov. Phil Scott made lead testing a priority in his inaugural address last month and urged lawmakers to approve funding right away in the budget adjustment package.
The Environmental Protection Agency requires schools with lead levels above 15 parts per billion to take action to curb contamination. Schools in Vermont are not currently required to test for lead.
Senators are lowering the limit to 3 parts per billion because they are worried about the health effects of lead exposure on children. Lead found in water systems, old paint and other sources can harm the brain development and nervous systems of young children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Sen. Brian Campion, D-Bennington, a proponent of the lower threshold, said “We don’t want children going through elementary school drinking water with lead in it, or faculty or staff for that matter. So this feels good.”
Some legislators had wanted to make the limit even lower. Sen. Andrew Perchlik, D-Washington, argued lawmakers should lower the threshold to 1 part per billion: the limit recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
But school districts would likely have to re-install filtration systems regularly to meet the lower threshold and that could be costly, according to Sen. Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden, the chair of the education committee.
“We recognize that local communities are at their wit’s end for money and we’re trying to make sure that whatever we ask of them is actually necessary health-wise,” Baruth said in an interview Friday.
The Senate’s lead testing bill will cost about $2.3 million. About $1.5 million would be slated for testing and retesting costs. About $700,000 would be used to help schools cover the cost of lowering lead levels.
Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee say they plan to approve the funding. The House Appropriations Committee, which was concerned about whether the state had the resources to conduct all of the testing right away, opted in its version of the Budget Adjustment Act, which passed on the House floor last week, to spend some of the money in 2019 and some in 2020.
