Bill Calls for Lead Tests for School Drinking Water

Lawmakers in Albany passed legislation over the weekend that mandates all public schools in the state of New York be tested for lead in their drinking water.

The bill calls for an initial report of all school lead levels by the end of the year and has been years in the making. Lead is a neurotoxin and has been linked to learning disorders and lower IQs, especially in children. Back in the 1980s, the federal government tried to regulate the amount of lead in school drinking water but failed.

A bill was introduced in Albany in 2001 and has been reintroduced every year since. But after lead was found in the drinking water at schools in Newark, on Long Island, and all over the country, the governor's office kicked the effort into high gear.

"This is a national model for how to deal with this emerging public health crisis. New York is the first to pass legislation to require testing and remediation at the tap for all public schools,” said Christopher Goeken, who directs public policy for the New York League of Conservation Voters.

Previous versions of the bill never gained traction because they forced local taxpayers to pay for the testing and mitigation.

Dave Albert, a spokesman for the New York State School Boards Association, said this new bill now provides multiple streams of state tax dollars to pay for lead remediation.

"We also were able to work with the legislature and put in a higher reimbursement level of building aid,” Albert said.

 Albert says lawmakers and Cuomo administration officials will use the initial report of school lead levels to determine how much funding schools need to get rid of lead risk.