The Lens (https://thelensnola.org/tag/school-lead-filters/)
The district’s three-year long project to install lead-removal filters at school drinking fountains is nearly complete. Charter schools will be in charge of replacing those filters. The district is now exploring kitchen filters.
Three years after the district first promised to test for lead in school water, 95 percent of drinking fountains have lead-removal filters.
After nearly a year of delays due to low water pressure issues, the district is giving up on microbe-removing filters and focusing on lead removal.
More than half of schools with water filters have at least some that are not working. The district has known about low water pressure problems since September.
The move comes one week after a 7th-grader’s water test prompted action. Dozens of other New Orleans public schools are still waiting for lead filters.
Orleans district promised Monday installation at Plessy after a test performed by a student found possible contaminants. But the filters won’t work properly without booster pumps. The district says about 16 schools need the pumps.
The district’s pledge to install filters in all schools has been delayed several times.
The district has installed filters in 30 schools, fewer than half of the city’s public schools. That’s three sites shy of its December goal.
The long-awaited filters come more than two years after the district promised to test school water for lead.
