Environmental advocates say the announcement by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week to set a 10-year deadline for most utilities to replace lead service lines for drinking water in homes is a major step forward for improving public health. But they caution the change doesn’t go far enough to protect kids at school.
Our Washington News Bureau spoke with John Rumpler, Clean Water Director for the nonprofit group Environment America.
“Lead contamination of schools’ drinking water is widespread and most schools do not have these lead service lines that EPA is ordering to be removed in ten years, and so while that’s a great step forward in protecting kids and parents and everyone else in their homes, it’s not going to deal with the lead that it’s in the plumbing, the faucets, the fountains, the fixtures all throughout our schools,” said Rumpler…