The Safe Drinking Water Act was enacted by Congress in 1974 to protect public health by regulating the nation's public drinking water supply. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) ensures the state's drinking water quality meets federal standards. For many years now, Green Forest has submitted water samples to DNR on a monthly basis. The results have always shown our water to be safe for all purposes.
In 2022, Missouri legislation passed the Get the Lead out of School Drinking Water Act. This piece of legislation goes beyond federal requirements by mandating that school's must address and correct any water outlet in the building that tests for lead at a rate exceeding 5 parts per billion (ppb). The EPA actionable is 15 ppb. Testing by the schools must be done prior to the first day of school in August of 2024. However, Missouri Legislation allocated $27 million to support schools in reducing lead concentrations in schools that must be applied for prior to January 31st. Many schools in the state are going ahead and conducting what will become an annual lead test on their water outlets to get a jump start on making necessary changes while this money is available.
Another piece of the law is the requirement of school districts to post and distribute to families information on lead in drinking water and how to protect your health. Distributing these materials along with the results from any lead test that we complete here at Green Forest are simply requirements of the new laws and does not imply that anything is wrong with our drinking water.
We recently conducted additional testing, beyond our normal monthly tests, on our water outlets to ensure once again that our water is safe for drinking. I am happy to say that all outlets tested below the required 5 ppb as you can see on the attached document.
The Green Forest Administration and the Board of Education have decided to place additional filters on all drinking fountains in the building even after all outlets tested safe for drinking. The safety of our students is our top priority. The filters will be purchased and installed using our portion of the $27 million allocation from the Missouri Legislation. Additional testing will be completed prior to the August 2024 timeline set by law and after the filters have been installed. Those results will be distributed to the public at that time.
If you have any questions, please contact the office at 573-729-3902 or email Mr. Prugh at cprughgfr2.k12.mo.us.