Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) seeks to turn all school fountains back on – after closing them for two years during Covid – but some have been shut off since long before the pandemic due to issues of lead.
When board members spoke with the capital improvements and building services leaders at the May Board of Education meeting, Jonathan Briggs (representing District 2, which includes Greenbelt) raised the question of lead in the water at schools in his district. “I have a number of community members that are reaching out about their children drinking from water bottles throughout the day … there’s an issue with the water,” he told presenters.
“We want to make sure that all our students are drinking safe water,” responded Associate Superintendent Dr. Mark Fossett. “If we come across a drinking source that tests above the standard and we cannot remediate it, we’ll turn it off. We do have schools in the system that are completely on bottled water … it’s just based on the age of some of our facilities and the piping. Not only the piping that is inside of some of the buildings being aged but also what’s running to us from our utilities. So, it’s a precarious situation but we do prioritize certain work orders based on safety and we try to get to as many as possible but you know – $8 billion deficit, $2 million maintenance deficit – you need to make choices.”
Briggs asked if access to drinking water was factored into the capital improvements prioritization and the answer appeared to be “no,” in part because it may not be possible to remediate lead in the water during renovations and refurbishments and “you’re talking about a total rebuild” to get drinkable water in some cases, Fossett said.
Lead Levels in Greenbelt
Greenbelt schools may be waiting for lead remediation before they have access to all their water fountains. In what appear to be the most recent lead testing results, all Greenbelt schools have at least one water source with unacceptable levels of lead. Greenbelt Elementary, tested in 2019, had one water source at or above 5 ppb. Springhill Lake Elementary, tested in 2017, had three such water sources. Magnolia Elementary, tested in 2017 and 2019, shows 13 sources at or above 5 ppb (these appear to be different sources tested in different years based on their location codes). Dora Kennedy French Immersion was tested in 2017 and had two water sources above 5 ppb. Greenbelt Middle, tested in 2017, had one source with lead over allowable levels, and Eleanor Roosevelt High, tested in 2017, had 10.
The Code of Maryland Regulations requires that lead testing take place every three years in schools. Exceptions may have been made during Covid since several Greenbelt schools don’t appear to have been tested for five years. Briggs and Director of Building Services Sam Stefanelli did not respond to questions from the News Review about the timeline for retesting Greenbelt schools nor the prospects for and history of success with remediation efforts in Greenbelt.