York City Schools doesn't test all taps for lead in water: report

Oct 16, 2024

York City, which ranks among the highest municipalities statewide for child lead exposure, tested a single drinking water tap in each of its nine school buildings.

The school district's minimal compliance with a state law surrounding drinking water in Pennsylvania schools could leave students vulnerable to lead exposure, according to a report from an environmental advocacy group.

The K-12 district, which has 6,072 enrolled students, tested a single tap in each of its nine schools, according to analysis of state data by the PennEnvironment Research and Policy Center. That level of testing is in line with state law, but the environmental advocacy group noted that “testing just a few outlets rather than all drinking water taps virtually guarantees that some lead in a school’s water system will go undetected."

ShaiQuana Mitchell, supervisor of communications and marketing for York City School District, said the district tests its water annually and all of their buildings were in compliance this spring with the federal agency's regulation.

York City ranks among the highest municipalities statewide for child lead exposure. Nearly 16% of children under age 6 in York City showed elevated blood lead levels — although it's impossible to pinpoint a single source of the lead, according to state Department of Health data. In addition to drinking water — typically due to lead pipes — children can be exposed to lead from lead-based paint in homes built before 1978, in soil due to nearby industrial activities and, occasionally, in consumer goods contaminated with lead.

A tap is any unit that generates water for a user, making sinks and water fountains – dozens in a single building – the most targeted for upgrades to aging infrastructure made before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) regulations called for lead action levels to not exceed 15 parts per billion, or 0.015 milligram per liter. In effect, the EPA's level means there is no "safe" level of lead in drinking water.

That regulation, proposed by the EPA to come down to 10, is questionable since the agency also states the EPA's agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that there is no known safe level of lead in a child's blood.

"It's not a health-based number," said David Masur, executive director of PennEnvironment. "We keep reminding (schools) 15 parts per billion is 15 times over what is safe for kids. It's unsafe at any level."

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The EPA agrees that the lead action level, established by the agency's Lead and Copper Rule, is not health-based.

"The rule establishes a health-based maximum contaminant level goal of zero and a lead action level of 15 parts per billion," Kelly Offner, media and public affairs specialist for the EPA's mid-Atlantic region, wrote in an email.

If lead levels from samples exceed that lead action level, water systems must take additional actions such as corrosion control, public education and line replacement, Offner said. The level is based on EPA’s evaluation of available data on the ability of corrosion control to reduce lead levels at the tap. The action level is a screening tool for determining when certain corrosion-control actions are needed.

Test results obtained and confirmed by The York Dispatch show levels in all of the district's buildings to be less than 0.001 milligrams per liter, although those results could be questionable since they were done while students were in the building.

The water tests were conducted on Feb. 7. That was an early dismissal day, Mitchell said, meaning students came to school in the morning and left around noon. The water for the tests was collected between 9 a.m. and 11:10 a.m.

Samples should be collected before the facility opens and before any water is used, according to the EPA. The water should sit in the pipes unused for at least eight hours but not more than 18 hours before a sample is taken.

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The lab results show a single bottle was tested for each of the city's school buildings and its administration building, which PennEnvironment criticized as insufficient in capturing lead in water for an entire facility.

Help is on the horizon for York City schools thanks to a $3.3 million grant announced last month by state Rep. Carol Hill-Evans, a Democrat who represents York City in the state House.

Money from the Public School Environmental Repairs Program comes from the 2023-24 budget and will go toward eliminating lead, mold and asbestos and updating heaters and air conditioners where needed in York City schools.

The state's history of underfunding school districts has made it challenging for districts to make some renovations, Hill-Evans stated in her release.

"Every child should have a safe, modern place to learn no matter where they live," Hill-Evans said. "Students in regions with more working-class families work just as hard as kids born into wealthier areas, and they deserve the same opportunities.”

Mitchell said the district is looking forward to using the grant for roofing, heating and air conditioning in some buildings.

The Sept. 4 report from PennEnvironment notes York City was the only district of the nine surveyed that had one drinking water source for every 100 students, teachers and other occupants, a measurement of water access.

Another concern PennEnvironment cited was that it could not find “any discussion of lead in drinking water” on York City’s website, a barometer for transparency.

"All buildings in our school district received a result that is in compliance with EPA," Mitchell said. "Generally if there isn't any cause for concern it does not go on our district website."

Schools are exempt from the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, Masur said. That makes it harder to coerce districts with tight budgets to fully comply with higher standards – even with public health at stake.

Lead in school drinking water, the report states, is a problem for urban, suburban and rural school districts. Red Lion, Southern York County and West Shore are the other York County districts that received money through the grant. York City's allocation was the biggest by far.

A 2021 report by Women for a Healthy Environment study found that, of 65 school districts statewide, 91% detected lead.

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Officials with York Water Company, the public utility servicing all of York City’s schools, can ensure its pipes delivering water to the district’s buildings are not made of lead.

“The probability, the possibility, of having a lead line on the customer side of service owned by York City School District is about zero,” said J.T. Hand, York Water’s chief executive.

Since its water supply is clean, the issue possibly facing schools generally, Hand pointed out, is likely “premise piping,” or the inner parts composing fountains and faucets.

Before the 1990s, units could be made with brass fixtures containing lead, Hand said.

That's why Masur’s solution is to replace drinking fountains and sinks in schools with lead-filtering units, attacking the issue at the point of discharge and then regularly testing them for approval.

In 2022, Philadelphia City Council passed a citywide ordinance that required the city's school district to replace all of their drinking fountains with lead-filtering hydration stations by the end of this year.

Testing water can be an immensely tedious, expensive and lab-sensitive process for a single tap, but the units and practice should be affordable for districts with multi-million-dollar budgets, Masur said.

"There’s a philosophical question: What’s our kids’ health worth?" Masur posed. "I say, what do you think it’s worth?"

PennEnvironment did its research through district's websites, school board meeting minutes and Right to Know Law requests submitted to the districts as well as seeking to meet with district officials.

“We went to school districts, asked for data,” Masur explained. “Here is what we’re trying to do. Sit down with us. This is not a ‘gotcha’ for us. This is protecting kids’ health. York did not take us up.”

Reach Mark Walters at [email protected].

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