Delaware senators came together to better understand the state’s botched school water sampling program and how the statewide resample effort will avoid those early mistakes.
The public hearing, held Tuesday evening, comes amid Delaware’s statewide retesting of school drinking water sources, which was prompted after a series of Delaware Online/The News Journal stories exposed errors in the state’s initial water sampling efforts and its attempts to dodge responsibility.
Delaware Online found a litany of problems with the state’s lead testing program, which was funded through federal grants, including samples being taken by untrained custodians and janitors; sampling non-drinking water sources; and not releasing the results in a timely manner.
RESAMPLE BEGINS:Early results of lead testing show alarming levels in some Delaware school drinking water
The missteps led to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stepping in and the Department of Education pledging to perform a statewide retest to ensure proper testing protocol is followed and an accurate picture of lead contamination in school drinking water is obtained.
FOR SUBSCRIBERS:How Delaware’s handling of lead water testing put thousands of students and staff at risk
Nearly 100 people tuned into the Senate Health and Social Services Committee meeting Tuesday, whether in-person or virtually, to provide comments and learn more about Delaware’s retesting efforts, which are being performed by a third-party contractor with experience in water sampling.
PROFESSIONAL TESTING:Why Delaware hired an outside contractor to check for lead in school water
Doctors with the American Academy of Pediatrics and secretaries for the state departments of education and health provided testimony along with a public health expert from John Hopkins University that the Delaware Education Department contracted with to provide guidance with the state’s water resampling.
Who is advising Delaware on lead retesting?
Newark-based Batta Environmental Associates was awarded a $1.3 million contract to perform resampling at the nearly 250 public and charter schools in Delaware.
Dr. Natalie Exum, an assistant scientist at John Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health, is also providing subject matter expertise.
How is resampling funded?
Delaware’s Office of Management and Budget allocated state general funds to cover the cost of resampling. State officials hope to access the remaining $150,000 from the EPA to perform water sampling for lead at early childhood centers once issues with Delaware’s original testing are resolved.
What went wrong?
When asked to reflect on the state’s missteps with the initial lead testing protocol, education department Secretary Mark Holodick described the strategy as “on the cheap.”
Delaware received a total of $387,000 in federal grants to perform lead water sampling in all public and charter schools, according to the EPA, an amount that pales in comparison to the $1.3 million set aside for professional retesting. The state also had school facilities managers and custodians collect the initial samples, giving few instructions on how to properly take samples.
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Holodick also suspects personnel changes coupled with staff assuming things were being completed and schools were communicating results further exacerbated issues. The problems rendered the initial sample results unreliable, the education secretary said.
“If you really sit back and think about the model that we used,” he said, “we shouldn’t be surprised we didn’t get the consistent, solid results we expected. We are now.”
What are the next steps?
Although Delaware’s school water resampling is using a 7.5 parts per billion threshold to prompt spigot shutoff and remediation efforts, Department of Health and Social Services Secretary Molly Magarik stressed, “We want to get as close as possible to zero lead.”
The retesting started with the most problematic schools, like Wallace Wallin in the Colonial School District, where elevated lead levels were found in earlier samplings.
State officials and lead experts said all consumption points and any fixtures that returned levels above 7.5 ppb were retested. Fixtures that previously tested at 7.5 ppb or above remain shut off or signage warning users not to drink the water has been posted. Some schools have already opted to install filters, helping eliminate lead from water fountains or sinks.
SEE THE LATEST RESAMPLE RESULTS ON THE STATE’S DATA DASHBOARD
Holodick said he’d like to see the state adopt a “filter first” policy where all schools would have filters to remove lead and other contaminants from drinking water.
“We want to get to the point where consumption points have filters and it’s just replacing those filters periodically,” he said.
How will these fixes be funded?
No state money has been set aside nor is there currently grant money available to help schools pay for installing filters or other more costly repairs to address lead in water. There are federal grants available that help cover remediation efforts like filters, but local government or school districts would have to apply.
Holodick said they “don’t have a solid answer” yet on funds for costly repairs, like what might be necessary at Wallace Wallin School where the main pipe into the building was identified as the source of lead contamination. But he said they’re in conversations with Delaware’s federal representatives to determine what federal funds may be available.
Delaware has solely relied on federal money to fund its childhood lead poisoning prevention program, Magarik said, but hopes to see state funding allocated to the cause this year.
Where else are people exposed to lead?
Magarik, the health department secretary, stressed that school drinking water is not the primary source of lead exposure for children and the general public needs to be educated better on other avenues for exposure.
Children are primarily exposed to the contaminate from lead-based paint used in homes built before 1978, whether from paint chips or dust. The metal also can be found in some foods, cosmetics and toys.
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For example, landlords with lead in their apartments are not required to remediate even if a child has elevated blood lead levels, the health secretary said. Only about 20 percent of Delaware’s landlords opt to remediate, Magarik said, while the rest say they don’t have the money.
“Focusing only on schools misses the point,” she said.
Got a tip? Contact Amanda Fries at afries@delawareonline.com, or by calling 302-598-5507. Follow her on Twitter at @mandy_fries.
