Some of the finest private schools in the USA have very old buildings.

The problem with trusting the annual or monthly water report from the local treatment plant is it reflects one source of drinking water and not when finished traveling through the pipes.

March 28, 2017
By Rae Ellen  Bichell

Exposure to lead as a child (click here) can affect an adult decades later, according to a study out Tuesday that suggests a link between early childhood lead exposure and a dip in a person's later cognitive ability and socioeconomic status.

Lead in the United States can come from lots of sources: old, peeling paint; contaminated soil; or water that's passed through lead pipes. Before policies were enacted to get rid of lead in gasoline, it could even come from particles in the fumes that leave car tailpipes.

And when lead gets into a human body, it can mess with brain development, decades of research has shown....

April 4, 2017

Medical, environmental and left-leaning advocacy groups (click here) urged a Texas House committee on Tuesday to advance legislation requiring the state’s public schools to test for lead in their drinking water. But one environmental group said the bill as written doesn’t go far enough and some cash-strapped school districts might be wary of the cost.

House Bill 2395 by Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, would require the state’s 1,200 school districts and charters to pay for annual water supply testing, which is estimated to cost up to $3,000 per building. 

In the wake of the Flint, Michigan, water crisis, several legislatures in other states have passed, or are considering, legislation requiring regular water testing in schools and day cares. While a majority of schools in Texas and other states receive water from public utilities, which are required to regularly test for lead and other contaminants, advocates for mandatory water testing say schools are particularly vulnerable because so many of them are aging and have older pipes and water fountains.

Elizabeth Doyel, executive director of the Texas League of Conservation Voters, which pitched Collier on the bill, said she’s not aware of any public water utilities in the state that regularly test school water supplies....