Lead In The Water at Mesa Public Schools

While guns at schools are grabbing the headlines now, lead levels in the drinking water at 80 Mesa Public School sites exceed federal health standards that could affect students, faculty and staff members.

The exposure is cumulative

According to a report two days ago, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality in December said about 96 percent of the state’s public schools had no problems with lead levels, but it identified 158 schools that needed to repair or replace fixtures because lead levels were higher than government standards, said Trevor Baggiore, director of the department’s water quality division.

Mesa Public Schools, the largest district in Arizona, is dealing with nearly half of their 80 sites with levels exceeding the federal standard.
So far, the district has fixed more than half the fixtures, with many of the remaining schools awaiting confirmation of test results, spokeswoman Helen Hollands said.

. . .  the Mesa school district kept parents informed during the repairs. The district’s website includes a tracking spreadsheet of every school’s test results, “whether or not there was any lead found in the drinking water at that school,”
Arizona public schools still working to get lead out of drinking water             

By Joan Magtibay Cronkite News 34 min ago

AZ Daily Sun