MPS gets new water filters; health department recommends lead testing

Jul 01, 2023

Kindergartners lined up patiently in the hallway of Starms Early Childhood Center on Monday, clutching new water bottles with their names written on them, as they waited to fill them at a new Elkay bottle filling station.

One by one, they stepped onto a stool to fill their bottles as a flock of news cameras captured the action. Milwaukee Public Schools was celebrating a $2.2 million donation from Zurn Elkay to provide water filters for all district water fountains and filling stations for five years.

MPS relies on filtration systems to reduce any possible concentrations of lead in its water fountains and is converting all of its filters to Elkay filters.

District officials told the Journal Sentinel on Monday that they haven't tested MPS water for lead since 2019, as all fountains since then have been equipped with various filters that reduce lead.

Emily Tau, a spokesperson for the Milwaukee Health Department, told the Journal Sentinel that the health department believes MPS should be testing for lead. In fact, the department was under the impression that MPS was actively testing for lead. A September 2022 email shows MPS informed the health department it had an active testing and filter program..

Here's what we know about lead testing and the new filters at MPS.

In 2016, MPS found high levels of lead in 183 of its more than 3,000 drinking fountains, faucets and other water sources.

District officials said they turned off those water sources, installed filters, retested and found that levels were in line with safety standards.

In September last year, when the Milwaukee Health Department asked MPS whether it had an "active water testing and water filter program," MPS Department of Facilities & Maintenance Services Director Sean Kane said it did, according to an email obtained by the Journal Sentinel.

But on Monday, Craig Wentworth, supervisor of environmental health and safety for MPS, said the district completed retesting in 2019 and has not tested since then because all drinking sources have filters for lead. District officials didn't immediately reply to questions about the discrepancy.

Wentworth said he wasn't aware of any plans for the district to do more testing.

District officials have said there are no lead pipes that carry water from the city's water system into the district's buildings. Elsewhere in the city, many of these pipes, known as "laterals," contain lead that has seeped into much of the city's drinking water. The city is working to replace those pipes.

At MPS, where lead laterals are not an issue, the lead must have been in other internal plumbing mechanisms, Wentworth said. The strategy to address it has been to filter all drinking sources, he said.

Tau said the health department does not test water for lead at MPS buildings and would encourage MPS to test for lead, even if all fountains have filters.

"For best practices and to ensure the highest level of safety for students, we would recommend following an active testing plan," she said.

Since MPS added filters to all of its fountains after the 2016 lead testing, it has used a combination of filters from 3M and Aquasana filters, district officials said. They said there weren't problems with the filters, but maintenance will be easier with all fountains on the same filtration system.

The Elkay filters are certified to reduce lead levels to less than 5 parts per billion. That's below the Environmental Protection Agency's "action level" for lead in water, which is 15 parts per billion. MPS didn't immediately answer questions about the strength of the other filters that are being replaced but said they do reduce lead.

District officials said they plan to add Elkray filtration to all 2,498 of the district's current water fountains in the next two months, depending on staffing availability. They estimated they have so far converted about 20% of the fountains.

The district is also installing over 700 Elkay bottle filling stations.

Contact Rory Linnane at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @RoryLinnane.