PHOENIX – On Tuesday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that Arizona will receive a $621,991 grant for identifying sources of lead in drinking water in schools and childcare facilities.
Under the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Voluntary Lead Testing in Schools and Child Care grant program, EPA has awarded $43.7 million in grants nationwide to fund testing for lead in drinking water at schools and childcare programs.
In 2016, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality tested 1,427 schools, and in 2017, ADHS tested 1,055 licensed childcare facilities for lead in drinking water. This work has been integrated with ADHS’s larger Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, which includes funding from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and others.
With this new funding, ADHS will test approximately 650 public charter schools that were not included in the earlier testing. It will also oversee the program, sampling agreements with county health departments, and communication of results to the public. ADHS expects about 10% of schools will require follow-up testing and outreach.
EPA’s 3Ts (Training, Testing, and Taking Action) for Reducing Lead in Drinking Water in Schools will be used by the grantee to assist schools in implementing testing for lead in drinking water, including identifying sources of lead, such as lead solder in older drinking water fountains.