MISSOURI, USA — As Missouri students head back to school and prepare for tests on numerous subjects, administrators are getting ready to test school water fountains.
School personnel must now test all of their building's water used for drinking and cooking to make sure the supply isn't at dangerous lead levels, according to new state law. Administrators are on a deadline and must have a plan to test the water supply by Jan. 1, 2024.
Testing must be complete by Aug. 1, 2024, but the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) is offering an incentive for schools looking to get a head start on testing.
"The State of Missouri has allocated a one-time amount of $27 million to distribute to public school districts for testing, remediation, and filtration of drinking water to protect against lead exposures," DHSS said on its website.
The new requirements come after the state's legislature passed the "Get the Lead out of School Drinking Water Act" in 2022, which was then signed into law. The new law sets standards for lead concentrations in school drinking water and opens up funding for testing and addressing the issue.
Lead exposure has increased throughout the St. Louis region as more-than-a-century-old pipes and infrastructure begin to exceed their lifespans. A CNN report recently pointed to aging lead infrastructure as the main reason why the city is at one of the greatest risks for a water catastrophe in the nation.
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