News

Vt. House committee reports lead testing bill with later dates, lighter rules

By JEFF EPSTEIN
[email protected]
MONTPELIER, Vt. —  The House Education Committee passed its version of S.40, the bill to mandate testing of all school water fountains for lead. The bill now goes to the House Human Services committee.

The new draft reported by the education committee is different than the Senate version, which mandate that sampling be finished by the end of this year. In the new draft, the program is pushed out to next year, with a deadline of Dec. 31, 2020. 

Also, the amount of lead in drinking water that would force remediation would be 5 parts per billion (ppb), rather than 3 ppb. That is still a more strict standard than the federal action level of 15 ppb. If remediation was required, the state would pick up some of the cost, but exactly how much is still not clear and subject to change.

The Vermont Department of Health would be required to issue rules for the lead testing program no later than Nov. 1, 2020.

Schools would be required to develop action plans to eliminate lead from their school, and would have to take inventory of lead-bearing parts within the school, such as fixtures and plumbing with lead soldering.

They would also have to have a communications plan for explaining the lead testing program to parents and others in the school community. The state would provide templates with appropriate content for this purpose.

State Sen. Alison Clarkson was one of the sponsors of the Senate bill, 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.

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