News

School lead bill advances in Vermont House

By JEFF EPSTEIN [email protected]
MONTPELIER, Vt. ― S.40, the bill to mandate testing of all school water fountains for lead, continues to make progress in the state House of Representatives, and now has new numbers attached for remediation compensation.

The bill was reported to the House Appropriations Committee Tuesday, after the House Human Services Committee passed the bill April 18 on a 10-1 vote.

After the latest round of committee amendments, the local lead testing would have to be accomplished by the end of 2020, and the lead threshold for action is still 5 parts per billion (ppb), as earlier passed by the education committee, rather than the level of 3 ppb in the original Senate bill.

If that level of lead was found, and a school or district was compelled to replace a water fountain or other water service, the bill language states that the Department of Health shall reimburse a school at 70 percent of the cost of replacement of a drinking water fixture, up to the following maximum levels: $2,000 for public drinking fountains and ice machines, $700 for cooking outlets, and $400 for all other outlets.

Those figures are slightly higher than were in the House Education Committee’s version. 

In addition, the House Human Services Committee added the Department of Children and Families to the state agencies involved with the testing program, along with the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Education. The testing program will apply to independent schools and child care providers as well as public schools.

The Department of Health is supposed to consult with the Department of Children and Families in developing guidance on lead remediation plans. For its part, DCF is directed to change its testing rules to conform to the Department of Health. Current DCF rules requires child care providers to test for lead, but only every three years, at an action level of 15 ppb, and not from every drinking water outlet.

The bill still carries the proposed funding levels from the House Education Committee, which includes $1.07 million for school and child care center testing, with the bulk of it in fiscal 2020. $1.16 million would be alloted to help with fixture repair, split between 2020 and 2021, a little more in the latter year. The total estimated cost of the program is $2,969,000.

Avatar photo

As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.