Florida legislators want to filter public school drinking water

A trip to the water fountain after lunch or recess may seem innocuous for students. But Florida legislators are concerned with what may be in the water.

A bill introduced by Sens. Janet Cruz, Lauren Book and Annette Taddeo would require public schools to filter drinking water at the source on campuses built before 1986. The filters would have to remove lead.

"All kids should have access to clean and safe drinking water at school," Cruz (D-Tampa) said in an email. "...Schools around the country are facing this problem. We need to fix this in Florida and that is why I am proud to sponsor Senate Bill 66."

The bill extends beyond water fountains to sinks used in the kitchen for food preparation or cooking. Any water source that isn’t filtered would have to be noted with a sign. If SB-66 passes, districts would be required to post on their websites a list of drinking water sources, when the filter was installed and when it will be replaced next.

A full analysis of the bill is being completed, which will include an estimated cost of putting in filters at every school. She said it cost Alachua County Schools less than $1,000 per school to install filters on their water fountains. Rep. Evan Jenne is slated to file a House companion bill, Cruz said.

Lead exposure in children can cause headaches, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, anemia, hyperactivity and agitation, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Long-term exposure can cause cognitive impairment.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lists its action level for public water systems at 15 parts per billion. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states there are no safe levels of lead exposure in children.

“That's the problem – any level causes harm and higher exposure causes more harm,” said Don Axelrad, a Florida A&M professor of environmental health who has advocated lead testing and filtering in Leon County Schools.

Florida doesn’t require its schools to test or filter drinking water. LCS, however, began testing its water when concern was raised in 2016. At that time, Flint, Michigan, garnered national attention when about 1,100 homes exceeded the EPA's action level, USA Today reported, in some cases by more than 40 ppb. In many homes, lead wasn't detected, while other houses recorded lead levels of about 4,000 ppb to 12,000 ppb.

In Leon County, tests from 16 schools showed lead levels ranging from 1 ppb to 25 ppb.

Since then, the district has maintained a schedule of regular testing. The results are posted on its website. It flushes the water systems twice a week and more when students are on break, said Rod McQueen, who is in charge of code enforcement at the district.

“We have very good water here in Tallahassee – the state of Florida as a whole. But I don’t disagree with putting filters on fountains,” McQueen said. “The city gives us great water, Talquin gives us great water, so we don’t have any water quality issues, but we go that extra step of not only flushing our water but changing out the aerators and testing our water.”

In addition, kitchens use three-stage filtering. If soldering is used to hold pipes together, it's done with material that has reduced lead. Now the district is moving toward press joints for piping. 

Under existing policy, LCS investigates further when a water source tests higher than 10 ppb. If it proves to be a persistent problem, the aerator or fountain is replaced altogether. Most of the piping in older schools have been replaced.

That isn’t enough, said local allergist Ron Saff, who spearheaded the first round of water testing in 2016 alongside Axelrad and Florida State University professor of geology Vincent Salters.

"Lead in school drinking water is a national problem and it's very much a problem here," Saff said. "Children in Leon County Schools are being exposed to lead levels that pose a risk to their health."

It’s the reason Saff, Axelrad and retired environmental scientist Amy Datz pushed to get legislation sponsored that would require school districts to filter water. The entire process took about a year from conception to sponsorship.

Datz created more than 4,000 postcards that have handwritten notes from constituents all over the state. The cards will be mailed to the new House speaker, Senate president, Education Commissioner, and the Florida surgeon general. 

“You don’t have to be a physician or a scientist to understand smoking is bad for you. You don’t have to go to medical school for that,” Saff said. “Likewise, you don’t have to go to medical school; you don’t have to be a scientist to understand that there’s no safe levels of lead in drinking water.”

Contact Ashley White at adwhite@tallahassee.com or on Twitter @AshleyyDi.