According to David Masur, the environmental advocacy organization’s executive director, Pennsylvania’s school water safety laws are “sorely outdated.” That’s why the organization is advocating to pass Senate Bill 986, which would establish the Safe Schools Drinking Water Fund for districts to install lead filters in any water bottle filling stations and fountains.

Under state law, school districts are encouraged — but are not required — to annually test for lead in the drinking water of their facilities. If districts choose not to test their drinking water, Act 39 of 2018 requires school officials to discuss lead issues in school facilities at a public meeting at least once a year.

The study claims Altoona Area has “had years when they neither conducted testing nor discussed lead at a public meeting,” which school officials took exception to, stating the claim is inaccurate.

“We do meet the requirement of having that conversation annually,” said Superintendent Brad Hatch.

The Altoona Area School District tested for lead at each of its buildings in 2019, and found that all of its water coolers, fountains and faucets were “well below the accepted action level” set by the Environmental Protection Agency, according to Trevor Robinson, the district’s buildings and grounds director. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

According to Hatch, there is no federal law that requires school districts to test drinking water, except for when schools or child care facilities own or operate their own public water supply, which is regulated under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, he said.

Except for Juniata Gap Elementary School, the water supply for all of the district’s buildings comes from the city, according to Trevor Robinson, the district’s buildings and grounds director.

Shortly after Act 39 of 2018 was enacted in December, the Altoona Area School District tested for lead at five locations at each of its buildings in 2019, Robinson said.

The district found that all of its current coolers, water fountains, water bubblers and faucets were “well below the accepted action level” set by the Environmental Protection Agency and required no action, Robinson said.

Robinson said the district tested all of its older buildings first, starting at Baker Elementary. He said the former William P. Kimmel Alternative School building had one faucet in a back room that was never used and came in above the action level. The district immediately took the faucet out of service, Robinson said, noting the district no longer owns the building.

Robinson said the district hasn’t undergone a major construction project that would have disrupted the water service at any of the district’s buildings since 2019.

If Altoona Area was to undergo a project in any of its buildings, the district would implement lead testing in those areas, he said.

“We don’t continue the testing based on EPA recommendations,” Robinson said.

Other claims refuted

The PennEnvironment study also alleges Altoona Area tested only a few of its outlets for lead, which the district claimed as false.

According to the study, those test results are “hard or impossible to find” and elevated lead levels were not published on the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s website. Hatch refuted these claims, stating the district’s testing information is “readily available” upon request.

Hatch said the district doesn’t post content on the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s website. However, Altoona Area does provide the state with required information on a regular basis, he said.

“Whatever reports we’re required to provide, we do provide,” Hatch said. “Whether or not it gets posted to their website, that’s out of our purview.”

‘At the forefront’ of safety

According to Hatch, Altoona Area is “at the forefront of making sure that we’re providing safe learning environments,” which includes safe drinking water for students, he said.

“We try to be as proactive as we can in terms of making sure that we are providing a safe environment,” Hatch said, adding there are lead-filtered water filling stations throughout the high school, the junior high school and other buildings within the district.

“We are completely comfortable with the safety of the drinking water that we provide to our students in all of our buildings,” Hatch said, noting students are also permitted to bring their own drinking bottle from home, if they’d prefer to do so.

Hatch said there are 500 public school districts in Pennsylvania, but PennEnvironment only requested information from a fraction of those districts, which included schools in Bethlehem, Harrisburg, Hazleton, Norristown, Scranton, Upper Darby, West Chester and York.

According to Masur, PennEnvironment picked a “geographic mix” of larger school districts in the state that don’t follow what his organization deems as “best practices” for the study.

“If (school districts are) not going to implement widely accepted best practices for protecting our children, then that’s why we’re calling on state leaders to do it,” Masur said.

Masur said he believes Altoona Area — with a student population of about 7,200 — should have a minimum of 72 lead-filtered water fountains within the district.

According to Masur, the cost of installing a lead-filtered fountain is about $2,500, or about $180,000 in total for a school the size of Altoona Area. Masur said he feels the investment is worth making to ensure students have access to clean drinking water.

“I think we all want the same thing, which is to protect kids,” Masur said.

Hatch agreed, stating Altoona Area is in favor of promoting and ensuring the safety of its students and staff. He reiterated the district’s drinking water is safe for consumption.

“We are very confident that we continue to provide safe water for our students and will continue to do so by whatever measures we need to do,” Hatch said.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.