Nearly all school water fountains have lead-removal filters, NOLA district says
As New Orleans students return to school throughout August, a statement issued by NOLA Public Schools assures the public that 95 percent of all school water fountains will have lead-removal filters, nearly meeting the district’s self-imposed Aug. 1 deadline.
“By August 1, 2019, all school facilities being occupied by students will have had water filters installed on the vast majority of the water fountains within the school,” said a district statement, issued Wednesday.
With that news, the more than three-year project to protect Orleans Parish public school students from lead appears to be nearing a close. The effort, sparked by the crisis in Flint, Michigan, has slogged through three unofficial phases.
First, in 2016, began a yearlong decision-making process that resulted in a shift to filter installation rather than testing for lead, as officials had originally planned. Then came a year of choosing and hiring a filter contractor, a process that was delayed and had to be rebid. And finally, a year of installation issues, including low water pressure that rendered some drinking fountains unusable after filters had been installed, left some filters installed but unconnected and the public largely in the dark.
Read more: https://thelensnola.org/2019/07/31/nearly-all-school-water-fountains-have-lead-removal-filters-district-says/