HOUSTON – During National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, Environment Texas Research and Policy Center, the Coalition of Community Organizations and Houston Independent School District (HISD) held a news on conference Wednesday to highlight actions the school district is taking to prevent schoolchildren from drinking water with lead in it.
HISD says a new round of water testing is currently underway. Next spring, the district plans to begin a project to add bottle-filling stations with lead filters and work with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) on an initiative for new lead testing of school drinking water.
In a report released in January 2022, TexPIRG Education Fund, Environment Texas Research & Policy Center and Coalition of Community Organizations (COCO) reportedly examined over 250 individual school testing reports for elementary, middle and high schools posted to the HISD website. HISD collected samples from all water fountains and one component in all kitchens, the news release said.
“We applaud HISD for prioritizing the health and safety of our children,” said Michael Lewis, Clean Air and Water advocate of Environment Texas Research and Policy Center. “Everyone who goes into a school, whether student or faculty, should have access to clean and safe drinking water.”
According to the news release, lead was found in at least one water tap at 84% of schools tested. While HISD said they did remediate taps at 34 schools with exceedingly high levels of lead, a December 2021 review of data on the HISD website for lead testing shows that no action was taken to address the lower levels of lead in schools’ water across the district, a spokesperson for the Environment Texas Research and Policy Center said.