Don’t drink the water! That’s how thousands of Detroit, Michigan, public school students were welcomed back on Tuesday. They were told not to use the school building’s water fountains. Instead, the school system had brought in water coolers and bottled water for students to use on the first day of classes.
Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said last week that elevated levels of lead or copper were found in fixtures at 34 schools. Both metals can be harmful to human health. Test results are pending for other schools.
The discovery of contaminated water in Detroit's schools follows a lead-tainted water crisis in Flint, Michigan. In 2014 and 2015, Flint didn't properly treat corrosive water that was pulled from the Flint River. As a result, that insufficiently treated water caused lead in old pipes to leach out. The lead contaminated the water going into homes and businesses. It streamed from household taps as a brown and smelly fluid.
Some children in Flint were subsequently found to have elevated levels of lead in their blood. Too much lead can cause developmental delays and other health problems.
Eager to not undergo the same health and financial fallout as Flint, Detroit officials decided students at Detroit's 106 public schools shouldn't drink the water until it can be declared safe. School officials believe old fixtures, not the water source, may be to blame.
The situation exposes a breakdown in maintenance of the schools’ infrastructure. But Vitti believes it is more important “to be transparent and proactive” than to try to save face for the school system.
“I can sleep better at night and actually look in the mirror knowing that we did the right thing,” he says.
Vitti estimates the cost of the coolers and bottled water will be $200,000 over two months. Vitti says he's looking for a long-term plan for new central water stations at every school with independent piping systems. One teachers’ union is also offering to help with the provision of some clean water and hand sanitizer in the short term.
(AP Photo: A student gets water from a cooler at Gardner Elementary School in Detroit on Tuesday, September 4.)
