By JEFF EPSTEIN
[email protected]
WINDSOR, Vt. — School districts throughout the state are monitoring the development of a bill in the state legislature that by the end of this year would mandate testing of school water for the presence of lead.
Under provisions of the bill as passed by the Vermont Senate, the state would cover the cost of the lead testing — which means the facility must send samples of drinking or cooking water to a state health laboratory. The water would have to meet a lead content standard of no more than 3 parts per billion (less than the federal standard of 15 parts per billion).
However, if the testing found more lead than 3 parts per billion, and was therefore deemed in violation, the school district or child care center would have to pick up some of cost to fix the problem. They could be “eligible for assistance” from the state, but current bill language does not specifically mention 50 percent or another figure as the assistance level.
State Sen. Alison Clarkson was one of the sponsors of the bill, S.40, and state Sen. Richard McCormick and state Sen. Alice Nitka also voted on the floor to approve it. S.40 passed the senate 29-0. It then went to the House side, where it is now sitting in the Education Committee.
Local area school districts are aware of the bill, but have not yet placed it on their agendas. Most boards are reorganizing after town meetings, which was the case Monday night when the Windsor districts and the Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union held meetings. (The Mt. Ascutney School District board, which is technically a transition board under Act 46, holds meetings with many of the same personnel as are on the Windsor and West Windsor district boards, which will continue to meet until June 30. On July 1, when the new fiscal year begins, MTASD will formally take over and the town school boards will terminate.)
Springfield, meanwhile, is preoccupied with re-doing its 2019-20 budget, which was voted down at town meeting.
State advocacy groups are also talking to legislators about the lead testing bill.
Nicole L. Mace, executive director of the Vermont School Boards Association, testified before the committee March 20 that the bill as it stands is “unimplementable and underfunded.”
The lead standard envisioned by the bill would be the lowest level of lead allowed in the nation, Mace said. Therefore, if a violation is found, “there is no guarantee that the lead levels in the child’s municipal water supply are any lower than what is found in her school, not to mention her own home.”
It is also unclear what costs the districts would have to cover in the event of remediation, she said.
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