EPA Announces Funding For States To Reduce Lead In Drinking Water At Schools And Child Care Facilities

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is announcing a total of $26M in funding for states and territories to address lead in drinking water at schools and child care facilities. Since 2018, EPA has provided over $200M to help reduce exposure to lead in drinking water where children learn and play.

“Lead is a neurotoxin that can negatively impact American children. With $26M in funding this year, more schools will be able to identify sources of lead in their water and take action so that our nation’s children can focus on learning, playing, and developing skills that will maximize their potential and make our nation stronger,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.

EPA will allocate grant funding to states and territories through the Voluntary School and Child Care Lead Testing and Reduction Grant Program. Total allotment amounts for each of the 50 states, DC, and four territories can be found on the grant website. Tribal allotments for this program will be released separately.

The EPA is committed to protecting children and communities across America from lead in drinking water. In addition to this grant program, EPA’s Training, Testing, and Taking Action program (3Ts) provides information and recommendations to help states and local authorities build voluntary programs to reduce lead in drinking water. Since 2019, this effort has helped over 20,000 child care facilities and nearly 13,000 schools have their water tested for lead with over 1,300 child care facilities and 2,500 schools completing remediation work.

With the help of this grant, Texas has sampled approximately 97% of the approximately 1,552 school and child care facilities they planned to test. This success is thanks to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s free program to conduct voluntary sampling and analysis for lead in drinking water. In Colorado, their Test and Fix Water for Kids program has protected approximately 600,000 children from lead exposure in drinking water. New Hampshire leads the country with 360 schools with replaced drinking water apparatus. Remediation actions were taken on an additional 80 child care facilities.

Background
The Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act established the Lead Testing in School and Child Care Program Drinking Water grant in 2016 to award funding to states, territories, and tribes to assist local and tribal educational agencies in voluntary testing for lead contamination in drinking water at schools and child care facilities.