ATLANTA — Three years after the federal government set aside money for Georgia schools and childcare centers to test their water for lead, a majority still haven't.
11Alive News Investigates analyzed the data and found as of November 2024, just 15% of Georgia's schools have completed water testing through the grant funded program. Only 3% of childcare centers have.
Scientists and medical professionals have emphasized that exposure to lead, especially in childhood, can have lifelong impacts.
Jennette Gayer is the state director of Environment Georgia, a bipartisan nonprofit environmental advocacy group that has been tracking how much lead is in Georgia's pipes.
"It's a potent neurotoxin for children, which means it makes it harder to learn," Gayer said. "It has impacts on IQ levels, it has impacts on behavioral levels. And we know there's lead in schools.”
In 2021, a federal grant-funded program called Clean Water for Georgia Kids was established. The program is run by the Georgia Department of Education and RTI International, an EPA-accredited lead testing lab.
Any school or childcare center in the state can sign up to test their water for lead. The costs of testing and remediation are fully covered by the grant money, explained Jennifer Hoponick Redmon, senior director of Environmental Health and Water Quality at RTI International.
"We test every tap used for consumption," Redmon said. "We want to make sure every student is drinking, ideally, lead-free water. And when we find it, we then help to fix it."
The program is voluntary since there is no Georgia law in place requiring schools and childcare centers to test their water for lead.
Sarah Morris with the Georgia Department of Education said it's been difficult getting schools to sign on.
"Our biggest hurdle is overcoming the fear of testing," Morris said. "There's a fear out there of 'What if I find it?' and the fear that it creates in the community. Or 'What if I find something and I can't fix it?'"
Data shows that 337 of Georgia’s 2,355 public schools have completed testing. A majority of those were completed in 2024, after Gwinnett County Public Schools enrolled in the program.
Of all the schools statewide that have tested, as of November 2024, only 3 had no detectable lead at all.
Nearly half found levels above 15 parts per billion, the federal action level at which the EPA currently requires immediate action.
In October 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rolled out new rules cracking down on lead levels in drinking water. The agency updated the Lead and Copper Rule, lowering the action level from 15 ppb to 10 ppb and mandating full replacement of all lead service lines across the country within 10 years. The new rule will take effect on December 29, 2024.
Gayer said Environment Georgia's analysis of that testing found no real rhyme or reason to which schools had lead-positive taps.
“New school or old school, wealthier communities, lower-income communities," she said. "What we know is if we test for lead, we find it."
While the Georgia Department of Education continues encouraging more schools to get on board, the state Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL) is also ramping up its efforts.
Pam Stevens is deputy commissioner for DECAL, which oversees the estimated 4,300 childcare centers in Georgia.
"We've all known for a while that lead water is terrible for children," Stevens said. "It causes long-term cognitive and behavioral issues for kids that last a lifetime. So we know how important it was, but we just never had a resource to help us deal with that issue."
Stevens said when the Clean Water for Georgia Kids program was launched, DECAL jumped on the opportunity to encourage childcare centers to sign up.
"We were thrilled," she said. "We're doing everything we can to promote it."
Still, only 137 of the thousands of child or family care centers in Georgia have completed testing through the program as of November 2024.
Sevens said even though DECAL has worked hard to raise awareness of the program, the agency is struggling to get more on board.
"You're afraid of the results sometimes, like what if it's worse than we think?" Stevens said. "We're trying to really reassure providers that there are easy, quick, low to no cost solutions if they do find a problem."
When asked why it has been tough to convince facilities to use the provided funds to protect children, Stevens said it's another layer of care to ask of an already demanding job.
"Childcare is a hard job; there's a lot to do," Stevens said. "You have to come in before the kids are there and collect water samples from every tap, which isn't huge, but it is still one more thing to do."
Stevens added that DECAL is working to ramp up its efforts to get more childcare facilities on board.
“We're just going to keep on pushing while the money is there," she said.
Gayer said from her perspective, the time is up to try to convince schools and childcare centers to sign up for the voluntary program.
Environment Georgia is now pushing for the installation of filtered hydration stations to quickly provide a safe source of drinking water.
"Parents should be demanding that school districts install hydration stations as a place where you can fill up your water bottle," she said. "The solution could be let's replace all the plumbing in schools, but it's a lot cheaper to install these hydration stations that we know get the lead out.”
Several states, like North Carolina, have passed legislation requiring schools to test their water for lead. So far, no Georgia legislators have proposed such a requirement.
State Rep. Matthew Gambill (R-District 15) said the legislature held a study committee on Childhood Lead Exposure, which met five times and heard from experts in the field. At the conclusion of the meeting, a report was compiled with recommendations that included lowering the threshold for confirmed lead poisoning from 20 to 3.5 micrograms of lead per deciliter.
"Many of our schools are new(er) and were constructed after lead was removed from use in construction," Gambill wrote in an email to 11Alive News Investigates. "I think this must be taken into account as you consider the 6,800+ schools and childcare centers."
Advocates like Gayer say getting the state to pass legislation setting aside money for hydration stations might be more likely to pass than a sweeping lead testing requirement.
“We have a problem, and we should implement a solution," she said.
As 2024 comes to a close, very few school districts in Georgia have committed to testing water for lead.
Metro Atlanta school districts testing for lead in water
Atlanta Public Schools began voluntary testing prior to the formation of the Clean Water for Georgia Kids program.
In late 2023, Gwinnett County Public Schools became the first major school district in the metro to enroll in the Clean Water for Georgia Kids program. Testing began in January 2024. A spokesperson said the district is now nearing the completion of its testing plan.
GCPS reported it collected water samples from approximately 14,100 drinking and cooking fixtures across 139 school facilities. Less than 2% of fixtures tested above the EPA’s previous action level of 15 ppb, equating to fewer than 260 fixtures across the 139 facilities.
A district spokesperson said although the EPA's change lowering the federal action level to 10ppb came well after GCPS had completed initial testing and remediation, the new EPA action level did not require GCPS to alter its plans.
That's because, in August of 2024, GCPS began work to ensure test results from all fixtures came in at 8 ppb or below, 20% lower than the new standard. Work associated with this effort is scheduled to be completed in early 2025.