Vermont’s initiative to test drinking water fixtures at every school and child care center in the state is on track.
About half of all child care facilities in the state have already been tested, according to state officials. By the end of this year, water testing is scheduled to take place at 140 schools.
“Things are moving along very well. Schools and child care centers have been very responsive,” said David Grass, the environmental health program manager at the Department of Health.
Responding to public health concerns after a testing pilot found elevated levels in several Vermont schools, lawmakers this spring passed Act 66, which advocates said created one of the strictest lead testing standards in the country.
The law requires every water fixture used for drinking or cooking in every K-12 school, both public and private, and child care center in the state to be tested for lead. If the toxic metal is detected at 4 parts per billion or higher, that tap or faucet must be taken offline until remediation brings the levels down. Lawmakers gave the state until December 2020 to complete all the testing.
The state released a first round of test results this summer, and the public can look up test results through an online dashboard created by the Department of Environmental Conservation.
Results were issued to 612 of the state’s child care facilities as of Wednesday, and 597 have had results posted online. So far, lead levels above 4 ppb have been detected in water samples collected from 80 child care centers.
According to a timetable released by state officials this week, 117 public and 23 private schools are scheduled for testing before the end of the year. In total, 437 schools need to be tested by the end of next year. Just seven schools have been tested so far, but testing at K-12 schools was on hiatus this summer because samples must be collected when buildings are in regular use.
Before a school can be scheduled for testing, the state officials must gather a full inventory of all fixtures in the building. Kits are then mailed to schools, where local staff collect the water samples. The samples are delivered by courier to the Health Department’s laboratory in Colchester for analysis. Results are emailed to schools within two to six weeks, and then posted online one week after school officials receive them.
