High levels of lead, copper found in schools

Associated Press

DETROIT

Detroit’s hard-pressed school system has found elevated levels of lead and copper in nearly a third of its elementary schools, contamination that one expert says could be found nationwide, wherever school authorities spend the time and money to look.

The news gave parents in the 46,000-student district yet another reason to worry, and prompted the teachers union to appeal for help from autoworkers, who trucked bottled water to a school where some students were drinking from bathroom sinks after the water fountains were shut down as a precaution.

“Our students want water all day long,” Detroit teachers union president Ivy Bailey said Thursday.

Nine of every 10 schools and day-care centers in the U.S. are not required to test for lead contamination under federal law, since their water is already tested by municipal suppliers.

But like most other school districts nationwide, Detroit has aging buildings with lead pipes and water fixtures that have parts made with lead – and that’s where the trouble lies.

The testing was prompted by the crisis in Flint, where lead flowed from taps after state authorities switched that city’s water supply from Detroit’s system to the Flint River to save money. About 8,000 Flint-area children under age 6 potentially have been exposed to lead.

In Detroit, school officials discovered that even though the municipal water complies with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards, elevated levels of lead and some of copper were found in the drinking-water fountains or kitchens at 19 of the 62 schools tested so far.

“It provides clear evidence that schools have to be proactive in finding and fixing these problems – it is not going to go away by itself,” said Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech professor who helped expose Flint’s water crisis.