It’s not much.  But, we expect that the water we drink be safe.

Oh, I know- many of you have given up on that.  You carry plastic bottles of water.  Because you fear the quality of the water being provided.

(If you live in Flint, Michigan, you know that you are still being provided water that is unacceptable.  But, too many cities across this nation simply fail to provide water that is safe and clean.  Thankfully, Alexandria, VA is one of those cities that gets its water from a private firm- one where the executives can be jailed and the provider entity fined for failing to deliver water of the quality promised and expected.)

A few years ago, some kids at the local high school (TC Williams, the school of “Remember the Titans” fame) wanted to study the quality of the water delivered by the school’s water fountains.  (I was their mentor for their science fair project .)

Why?  Not only because of the news about Flint, Michigan.  But, because many students noticed that the water tasted funny.

We discussed the water quality of the Alexandria system.  They were surprised to see how good that water really was.

We discussed the fact that TC Williams was in a new campus.    It was less than 10 years old, so one would not expect corrosion to be a factor.  (Of course, if the local water quality- or the lack thereof- resembled that of Flint, Michigan, we would be justifiably terrified.)

And, then, we found out something really interesting.  Not all the piping in the school was redone when the new campus was built.  So, then, the study became more interesting…  Were the complaints about the water location based?

In other words, was the water from the fountains that were being supplied via the old pipes tasting different than those supplied by the newer pipes.  Oh, but it was even more complicated than that- it seemed that the water really wasn’t as segregated as we thought.

So, the study became one of what was the water quality at the supply point for Alexandria, that from the fountains clearly supplied by the older pipes, and those that had comingled new and old pipes.

The good news?  The water quality in the school was generally good.  Lead was well below the federal standard, as were most of the other inorganics and biological contaminants.

That’s not what the results Superintendent Nikolai Vitti found when a random study of water supplied by Detroit’s school systems ran across his desk.

That data indicated that most of Detroit’s students (some 50,000) were going to drink water with an overpowering amount of lead, if they partook from the water fountains.  Given that the 106 schools already were way behind in their capital improvement programs (the total amount needed was more than $ ½ billion!), it was clear that this problem was not going to be easily fixed.  Not to mention the teacher shortage and curriculum requirements.

Now would probably be a good time to remind y’all that there is NO Federal requirement for schools to check their water quality.  Few of our states (New York, California, Colorado, Minnesota, and Maryland, among a few others – many of which recently passed new rules) demand any testing (and those still are pretty insufficient to ensure our kids’ safety).   Superintended Vitti was simply considering what existed in Flint- not because of a mandate to test…

The problem is that given the state of our infrastructure- decayed and decrepit piping (not to mention roads and bridges in the same situation)- that while the public water supply may be of sufficient quality at the pumping station- it is terribly deficient as delivered to our kitchen faucets or drinking fountains in our schools.

Many of our schools are replete with lead-bearing water conveyances.  And, those water systems don’t have constantly flowing water- there are holiday breaks, long periods each day when no one uses any water- not to mention summer holidays.  Those periods afford the water time to just sits in the pipes, eating them away.

Don’t bother telling me about our government’s new “federal lead action plan”  which is supposed to let the Feds work with local authorities to reduce lead exposure.  This plan lacks sufficient funds (‘all’ of $ 20 million for testing in day care centers AND schools), this plan  also lacks action steps.  The GAO already determined that some 43% of school districts (covering 35 million students out of 75 million) actually had tested their water- and that testing wasn’t annually based.  No, most had simply tested the water quality at anytime during CY 2016 and 2017.   And, wait for it- more than 1/3 of them found lead problems!

Maybe you should be sending your kids to school with a few bottles of water.  And, make sure you choose the bottled water that provides the quality they need.