Hundreds of schools and day care centers will receive grants for water filters. The filters are to protect children from lead exposure. While lead was banned from use in plumbing in the 1980s, there could be lead in older pipes and fixtures in schools, such as drinking fountains.
The action stems from a law referred to as Filter First.
$50 million of federal American Rescue Plan Act money is being distributed among public and private schools and daycare centers.
“The goal is to make sure that we are protecting the children from the risk of lead exposure in drinking water at schools and childcare centers,” said Holly Gohlke, a school drinking water specialist for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.
She said drinking fountains are going away.
“They need to be replaced with a filtered bottle-filling drinking station. And many people see those out in the public already. You know, where you just put a bottle to fill there or you can get a drink without a bottle."
Additionally, all sink faucets will be filtered.
Michigan is still making changes in light of the Flint water crisis, which resulted in elevated blood lead levels in many children across the city. That prompted Michigan’s “strictest-in-the-nation” Lead and Copper Rule which is intended to eliminate lead in public water supplies.
