Legislature would not fund mandatory lead tests

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, Wash. — When the signs went up last month at two Bainbridge Island schools, the district said it was simply doing what the state would soon require: testing all of its school buildings for lead in the water.  And it was voluntary.

So when school districts like Tacoma and Bainbridge Island say we are doing this voluntarily, is that accurate?

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"It is, at this point, voluntary," said Lauren Jenks, director of the state's Office of Environmental Health Sciences.

She was asked if "ideally every school in the state of Washington would test for lead in the water?"

"That is our best advice to schools, that they test their water for lead," said Jenks. "But because those rules have not been fully implemented yet, it is voluntary."

If the state Board of Health has its way, lead testing in schools will become mandatory beginning in 2017.

Elementary schools would need to be tested within the first year. Middle and junior high schools would be tested by 2020; high schools, by 2021.

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But it all depends on the state Legislature. If state lawmakers continue refusing to come up with the money to help pay for the testing, it will be up to individual school districts to act,  something Jenks applauds.

"I would love for us to remove the lead from the environment before it gets into our children's bodies," said Jenks. "So doing this sort of environmental testing, water testing, like the schools are, is really a plus for public health."

That's because, she says, public health is chronically underfunded.  So it may take the public will to get the state Legislature to act.

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