EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agree that there is no known safe level of lead in a child’s blood. Lead is harmful to health, especially for children.

Though most lead exposure occurs when people eat paint chips and inhale dust, the EPA estimates that up to 20% of lead exposure comes from drinking water. Lead enters drinking water through multiple pathways and the largest quantity is through corrosion, that is a dissolving metal caused by a chemical reaction between water and plumbing. The most significant factor in the extent to which lead enters the water is “water age,” that is how long the water stays in pipes.

EPA advises drinking water in schools is particularly important because children spend a significant portion of the day in these facilities and are likely to consume water while they are there.

Against that backdrop, to reduce indoor water consumption, LEED v4 New Construction offers points for further reducing by 25% and up to 50% “fixture and fitting water use from the calculated baseline in WE Prerequisite Indoor Water Use Reduction.” Other green building programs have similar targets.

Very low use at each fixture in bathrooms, coupled with large diameter pipes stipulated by plumbing codes, at a recently tested school this firm is aware of, resulted in an average overall premises water age of 8 days. Water age of 8 days raises concerns with respect to lead, but also with respect to the chemical and microbiological stability of the drinking water. There are externalities associated with water age, including that a disinfectant residual (e.g., a residual level of chlorine) is generally not maintained in the plumbing of a building with a water age over 3 days.

But little of this including lead is regulated.

Lead is regulated in public drinking water supplies under SDWA, a federal law that was initially passed in 1974. SDWA requirements apply to “public water systems.” Schools that are served by a public water system are not subject to SDWA monitoring and treatment requirements because those schools do not meet the definition of a public water system. The vast majority of public water suppliers do not include schools in their sampling plans because regulations only require sampling of single family dwellings.

To address this gap in testing, EPA developed a guidance document, 3Ts Technical Guidance for Reducing Lead in Drinking Water in Schools. EPA advises that schools may have elevated lead concentrations from the plumbing in the facility because the potential for lead to leach into water including because of the water age.

Several states have recently taken action to address concerns regarding lead in drinking water in schools. For example, in 2017 legislation was enacted in Maryland and in 2016, legislation was enacted in New York to require schools to test drinking water for lead contamination. Also in 2016, New Jersey adopted regulations regarding testing for lead in drinking water in public schools statewide, and Rhode Island enacted legislation to provide grants to local governments to conduct lead testing.

But the testing is daunting. There are 1,447 public and 1,397 nonpublic schools in Maryland alone and it will take almost 5 years to test those; which of course does not include addressing any conditions found. But a flaw in the Maryland and New York testing protocol is that they are starting with older schools, under the mistaken impression that aged pipes in pre 1988 schools are the key problem; when in fact newer green schools with water reduction features can have water age issues that results in lead in drinking water.

But the issue is real. As of September 28, 2018, the Maryland Department of the Environment has received the first required lead in water sample results from eight public school systems and 89 nonpublic schools. Of this number, 539 of the 22,327 samples exceeded the state self imposed action level of 20 parts per billion of lead. It should be noted that some think that action level is too high.

This is a tough subject. Have the green building programs not taken into account science in the area of water quality in the quest to reduce the quantity of water used? More and additional research is needed now from the environmental industrial complex to assist in justifying potable water conservation goals without compromising water quality and the public health.

Until there is new and good research. Many are suggesting new to be constructed schools should not exceed minimums for water use reduction required by green building programs.

All schools and day care centers should test for lead in drinking water, now.

And you might want to test the water in your green building for lead.