Standard Guide for Using Publicly Available Data to Identify Schools and Vulnerable Communities at High Risk for Elevated Lead in Drinking Water

Importancia y uso:

4.1 Lead can enter drinking water when service lines or plumbing fixtures that contain lead corrode, especially where the water has high acidity or low mineral content. According to the EPA, lead typically enters school drinking water as a result of interaction with lead-containing plumbing materials and fixtures within the building (EPA 2019 EPA 2018, (5)). Although lead pipes and lead solder were not commonly used after 1986, water fountains and other fixtures were allowed to have up to 8 percent lead until 2014 (GAO, 2018 (2)). Consequently, both older and newer school buildings can have lead in drinking water at concentrations that exceed the NPDWR.

4.2 Following the reports in 2015 of elevated lead levels in the water in Flint, Michigan, Congress passed the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act in 2016 (Public Law 114-322), which, among other things, amended the SDWA, to establish a grant program for states to assist school districts in voluntary testing for lead contamination in drinking water at schools. As a condition of receiving funds, school districts are required to test for lead using standards that are at least as stringent as those in federal guidance for schools.

4.3 California’s State Water Resources Control Board’s Division of Drinking Water initiated an aggressive program of sampling and public water systems supplying water to schools in 2018. California Assembly Bill 746 published on October 12, 2017, effective January 1, 2018, requires community water systems to test lead levels, by July 1, 2019, in drinking water at all California public, K-12 school sites that were constructed before January 1, 2010.

4.4 Lobo (2021) (6) reports that two factors predominantly control lead leaching into the drinking water: (1) the presence or absence of lead-bearing plumbing materials, and (2) water quality that promotes the formation of soluble or insoluble lead corrosion products. This guide provides a method of using publicly-available information to determine if the water supplied to schools presents an unacceptable lead exposure hazard.

4.5 The procedures described in the guide are consistent with Sections 4, 5, and 6 of Guide E3032.

Subcomité:

E50.05

Volúmen:

11.06

Número ICS:

13.060.20 (Drinking water)

Palabras clave:

lead; geographic information systems; schools; water;