Post by Logan on Mar 19, 2016 23:46:25 GMT -6
Every morning in every Louisville public school, custodians run the water fountains for up to a minute before children arrive for the day.
The object: To reduce the chance students are exposed to lead when they quench their thirst – a danger at the forefront of public consciousness after revelations of lead problems in Flint, Mich.
It’s part of a voluntary partnership between Jefferson County Public Schools and the Louisville Water Company, which also involves testing the district’s water fountains for lead on a rolling basis at all 155 schools. JCPS, like 90 percent of schools across the nation, is not required by the federal government to test its water for lead. But it has done so anyway for more than a decade. And it fixes problems if it finds levels higher than 10 parts per billion of lead, half the cutoff recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for schools not required to test.
“Our No. 1 goal is student and staff safety. When something like Flint happens, you want to make sure you’re not putting people at risk,” said Michael Raisor, the school system’s chief operations officer. “There’s more than an expectation – there’s a responsibility – that drinking water is safe.”
Read more: www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2016/03/17/louisville-schools-take-action-against-lead/81532438/
The object: To reduce the chance students are exposed to lead when they quench their thirst – a danger at the forefront of public consciousness after revelations of lead problems in Flint, Mich.
It’s part of a voluntary partnership between Jefferson County Public Schools and the Louisville Water Company, which also involves testing the district’s water fountains for lead on a rolling basis at all 155 schools. JCPS, like 90 percent of schools across the nation, is not required by the federal government to test its water for lead. But it has done so anyway for more than a decade. And it fixes problems if it finds levels higher than 10 parts per billion of lead, half the cutoff recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for schools not required to test.
“Our No. 1 goal is student and staff safety. When something like Flint happens, you want to make sure you’re not putting people at risk,” said Michael Raisor, the school system’s chief operations officer. “There’s more than an expectation – there’s a responsibility – that drinking water is safe.”
Read more: www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2016/03/17/louisville-schools-take-action-against-lead/81532438/