Bipartisan legislation recently passed in the Michigan Senate plans to take a proactive approach in bringing clean water to Michigan schools, educators and students.
Senate Bill 184 and Senate Bill 185, sponsored by Sen. Curt VanderWall, R-Ludington, and Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint, would require filters for taps and drinking fountains at Michigan daycare centers and K-12 schools.
Ananich said in a statement that parents should be able to trust that their children has safe drinking water throughout the school day, but aging buildings means water quality can be unpredictable.
“Our bills take the guesswork out of it by ensuring that schools and day cares install filters, keeping lead and other toxins out of the water supply and our kids safe and healthy,” Ananich said.
The Michigan Education Association (MEA), which represents about 120,000 educators throughout the state, supports the bill package and its investment in school infrastructure upgrades, said MEA Public Affairs Director Doug Pratt.
“With aging school infrastructure comes issues with water quality and mandating filtration systems is a good first step to ensure students are kept safe from any drinking water contaminants,” Pratt said. “We know lead exposure has a direct impact on brain development, especially in school-aged kids.
Approximately 14% of Michigan children under 6-years-old had a blood lead test in 2021, according to the latest statewide data. Of those tested, 3.5% of children had elevated blood lead levels that meet the threshold in which medical evaluation is needed.
While lead can commonly be found in things such as paint, dust and drinking water, state guidelines stress that there is no safe level of lead exposure. Children exposed to lead could suffer from lower IQ scores, decreased academic achievement and increased problems with behavior and attention related disorders.
The bill proposes annual water sampling and testing of the filtered water to ensure low lead concentration, along with regular replacement of the filter cartridge for each faucet and water fountain.
It also specifies that the filters used by Michigan schools would have to be approved by NSF, an Ann Arbor based organization that specializes in water testing and inspection, and establishes a fund to help day cares and schools in low-income areas afford the filters, installation and upkeep.
Under the legislation, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy would guide school systems and child care centers on how to best provide safe drinking water.
In a September interview with MLive, Ananich touted the passage of the “Filter First” legislation as one of his top, year-end priorities.
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Water has been an important issue in Ananich’s district of Flint, where he saw the Flint water crisis play out firsthand and now sees as a growing issue in other pockets of the country— most recently in the city of Jackson, Mississippi where a boil water advisory remains in effect.
If the bill were to be signed into law, each school would be required to develop “a drinking water management plan” within the first 15 months. Then distributed to school staff and parents, the plan would include things like the location of the water outlet being filtered, the location of a water outlet deemed inoperable and the maintenance of at least one filtered bottle station “for every 100 occupants of the school, not including visitors or individuals attending special events.”
After those 15 months, no school would be able to install a drinking fountain without a water filtration system.
As the package awaits a vote in the state House, Ananich expects that legislators on both sides of the aisle can find common ground to pass the proposed package.
“At the end of the day, we can’t rely on plumbing alone to keep kids safe,” Ananich said. “As someone who has seen firsthand how lead contamination can devastate an entire community, I am dedicated to making sure that wherever kids go, they’re getting safe water. Filter First is the smartest, quickest, most affordable way to make that a reality.”
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