The haphazard approach Delaware took to test for lead in school water supplies will get a public airing after Delaware Online/The News Journal’s coverage of the test results prompted the public to call for a legislative hearing on the statewide initiative.
Legislators from the Delaware House and Senate have scheduled a virtual public forum for 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 14, which will include representatives from the state Department of Education and the Department of Health and Social Services, to discuss lead testing and address unanswered questions.
REGISTER FOR THE NOV. 14 FORUM HERE
Brandywine West Democratic Sen. Laura Sturgeon said she hopes the forum provides clarity and reassurance for parents regarding the quality of drinking water in schools.
“What I really hope the forum does is bring peace of mind to the families about the quality of the drinking water,” she said. “That’s my main goal: Let’s get it out in the public where people can ask their questions and have a transparent, open airing of what exactly is going on.”
Sturgeon also wants to get to the bottom of why communication was lacking.
DELAYED NOTICE:Why Delaware schools waited a year to alert public to elevated lead levels
“There’s a little bit of finger pointing going on,” Sturgeon said. “By having an open forum like this, it forces the various groups that are involved to think it through and have an answer but also to have a better plan for the future so this doesn’t happen again.”
For over a year test results showing elevated levels of lead in dozens of Delaware schools were kept from the public, with many parents and school staff only learning about the statewide testing and results after The News Journal’s report Oct. 4.
Since then, state officials have placed the responsibility of notifying parents and staff on the individual schools, none of which notified faculty, staff or parents about the results as they came in.
The state Department of Education insists it has complied with the rules and regulations of the $209,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Voluntary Lead Testing in Schools and Child Care grant it is the recipient of, insisting that by notifying the school districts of the results it satisfied the requirement to make results publicly available “no more than 90 days from the completion of initial lead testing conducted at each facility,” according to the grant agreement.
GRANT OBLIGATIONS:Public was supposed to be notified about lead in schools, why weren’t they?
The department could not provide a clear explanation as to how notifying schools but not releasing the results to the public fulfilled this grant condition, nor could they explain why the department placed the responsibility for notifying the public on the individual schools despite that being the grant recipient’s duty.
Delaware’s lack of public notification along with its failure to follow federal regulations and guidelines dictating that a grant recipient follow the EPA’s “3Ts” ‒ training, testing and taking action ‒ has generated a lot of questions within the community that state legislators hope the forum will help clarify.
ALL ABOUT LEAD:How it gets into drinking water and can harm you
Delaware Sen. Sarah McBride, a Wilmington Democrat, said she hopes to gain a better understanding of the processes surrounding the test distribution; what was communicated to various stakeholders including schools; and what the plans are for remediation and future testing.
Legislation passed this past session requires the state education department to establish an evaluation and assessment system to determine whether a school building is in “good repair” by conducting routine air and water quality monitoring that is then posted publicly on the state health department’s website.
Perhaps, if that procedure was already in place, public notification wouldn’t have fallen to the wayside in the state’s lead testing program, legislators added.
“Obviously, making sure we are protecting students moving forward is a top priority,” McBride said. “The only way to do that is to understand exactly what happened over the last two years and how we can improve and fix where there wasn’t enough communication or there was miscommunication.”
Got a tip? Contact Amanda Fries atafries@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at @mandy_fries.
