How Far Will Montana’s Push to Remove Lead from School Drinking Water Go?_我的网站
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By Keely Larson | KFF Health News
But even with these two new pools of money intended to last two years, the state’s schools may struggle to remove all but the most dangerous sources of lead, considering about half the schools that tested their water between July 2020 and February 2022 found high lead levels. Medical experts say no amount of lead is safe to ingest.
“When you start replacing faucets and drinking fountains in the hundreds of schools that we have in Montana, that gets eaten up pretty quickly,” said Democratic state Rep. Paul Tuss, who added the state funding to an infrastructure bill passed this spring.
If the total were divided evenly among the approximately 590 schools that need to meet the state’s new lead testing rules, each school would receive less than $8,000 from the state to test and upgrade its faucets, pipes and water fountains. The state already knows that 110 schools have had at least one water fixture with lead levels of 15 parts per billion or higher, three times the level that requires action under Montana rules.
Most schools with lead levels over the state limit could address their “exceedances” with the state money, according to state Department of Environmental Quality spokesperson Moira Davin. “Our plan is to address as many schools as possible with this funding,” she said.
But part of the challenge for Montana is that it doesn’t yet know how extensive a problem its schools have. More than a fifth of the state’s schools facing the new rules — 129 facilities — hadn’t completed any sampling as of Aug. 3, said Greg Montgomery, the director of the department’s Lead in Schools program. And replacing a single school’s pipes can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“We are not talking about solving the whole problem here,” said Levin, who worked on lead exposure during her nearly 40 years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Lead is particularly harmful to children and can lead to brain and nervous system damage and slowed development and growth. It typically gets into drinking water in schools through piping or fixtures. A 2020 state rule requires schools to test water supplies every three years. If lead concentrations surpass 5 parts per billion, fixtures must be addressed — and shut off if higher than 15 ppb.
Jessica Reyes, an economics professor at Amherst College, said prioritizing fountains or pipes with high lead levels after a “first draw” test could help a lot. The test measures lead in water the first time a faucet is turned on for the day, after the water’s been sitting in a pipe all night. That sample provides the best data to pinpoint the greatest risks, she said.
Running all faucets for a few minutes before kids get to school is quite protective for kids, Reyes added, because the quantity of lead diminishes as the water runs. But Reyes likes to imagine a kindergartner who gets to school early for free breakfast and drinks from a water fountain before anyone in the building clears the pipes.
“Everything kids need to grow — lead is the opposite of those,” Reyes said.
Montana officials will decide how to distribute the money from the legislature, reimbursing schools for costs such as installing new faucets, water filters, plumbing and water bottle filling stations. The federal grant, meanwhile, will be used for covering costs related to testing, Montgomery said.
Schools will have to participate in the state’s Lead in Schools program by sampling their drinking water to get any of the state funding, he said, and they won’t be able to use the money on projects completed before the state bill was signed into law.
Montgomery said the amount available to schools would depend on whether they have any fixtures over the “action level,” or fixtures with lead concentrations over 5 ppb. Funding will be prioritized on a first-come, first-served basis, he said.
Even if a school doesn’t have high samples of lead in its test results, Montgomery said, it could seek money to install water bottle filling stations with filters. Schools could also use the money for larger projects such as replacing piping, but, Montgomery said, the state will set a limit on how much each school can get. And, he said, it’s unlikely the money will be able to cover something like a $100,000 pipe replacement project.
The goal is to make money available to all schools, regardless of size, and ensure a couple of schools aren’t “gobbling” the entire amount, Montgomery said. That means schools with extensive issues will likely need to pick which areas to fix.
“We want to make sure the small schools have equal footing as the large schools,” Montgomery said.
Many Montana schools have already launched remediation projects after receiving high lead results.
One sink at Skyview High School in Billings had one of the highest levels of lead detected in schools across the state. Scott Reiter, the executive director of facilities for Billings Public Schools, said the sink was in a control room in the auditorium and people rarely used it. After the results came in, the fixture was removed to make the sink unusable.
On a larger scale, he said, all cold-water piping for drinking and sinks was replaced at Rimrock Learning Center in Billings last summer. Reiter said the school had been remodeled and all fixtures replaced about five years ago, so when lead was detected all over the school, it was clear it wasn’t just one fixture.
“We knew that it had to be in the lines,” Reiter said.
Reiter said the school district used leftover money from a 2013 elementary school district bond to replace Rimrock’s pipes, which he estimated cost $100,000.
While Reiter said he was disappointed costs from the Rimrock pipe replacements and other projects that have already happened couldn’t be reimbursed retroactively, he welcomed the state’s additional funding. “Any help to the schools for something like this is great,” he said.
The Great Falls Public Schools district also exemplifies how extensive and expensive such work can be. The district used $19,511 from an earlier $40,000 state allocation for drinking fountains, water bottle fillers and filters across schools in the district, said Brian Patrick, its director of business services and operations. He said the district also got 783 tests covered by the state, each costing $25.
His district used a bond passed in 2017 to fund a pipe replacement at Lewis and Clark Elementary School, where 23 tests came in at 5 ppb or higher. The pipes were replaced last summer, Patrick said, costing $411,252.
“It doesn’t get fixed in one fell swoop,” Patrick said.
This article was produced by KFF Health News, a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF. It has been published with permission.
。 以下内容包含 8 月 28 日上映电影 Idiots 的剧透。
二 | Idiots 是一部由 Dave Franco、O’Shea Jackson Jr.、Mason Thames 和 Kiernan Shipka 主演的全新喜剧，它包含了所有元素：星光熠熠的演员阵容、令人毛骨悚然的反派转折，以及 Dave Franco 所称的“影史前三的‘吓出屎’场面”。这部即将上映的电影由 Macon Blair（曾执导《毒魔复仇》、《我不觉得这世界是我的家》）编剧并执导，讲述了“两个不称职的笨蛋（Franco、Jackson 饰）受雇将一名富家少年（Thames 饰）送往康复中心，而他们本该轻松的工作迅速演变成一场危险混乱”的故事。我与 Blair 及其演员阵容坐下来进行了一次独家圆桌访谈，解析电影的所有重大时刻（许多是喜剧，有些则充满了接近恐怖的戏剧性），并探讨在预算有限的情况下，如何将这部演员阵容强大且充满野心的作品搬上大银幕的挑战。为什么 Idiots 的电影制作人将片名从 The Shitheads 改为 Idiots？Blair 在制作 Idiots 时遇到的最大障碍之一就是到底该叫它什么。这部电影最初定名为（并以此进行营销）The Shitheads。Blair 表示，尽管外界可能这么认为，但并不是外部压力迫使更名的。Macon Blair（编剧/导演）： 在我心里，我仍然称它为 The Shitheads。但现在它叫 Idiots。我们从未面临任何更名的压力。[我们]只是开始计算推广电影的挑战以及我们需要跨越的障碍。考虑到这是一部小成本电影，而且是在夏季上映，如果坚持原名，可能会在宣传方式上作茧自缚。Dave、[制片人] Alex [Orr] 和我花了一个周末集思广益。Dave 想出了 Idiots，我们觉得“它朗朗上口，很干净”。而且我们不必担心它在社交媒体或视频点播平台上被屏蔽。Dave Franco 向 Alison Brie 透露的 Idiots 中“最具爆发力”的一场戏。Idiots 的剧情随着公路旅行中发生的一系列紧张片段展开。
三 | 在电影中段，主角 Mark (Franco 饰) 和 Davis (Jackson 饰) 在运送 Sheridan (Thames 饰)——一个傲慢的青少年心理变态——去康复中心的途中，停在了一家当地旅馆。三人邀请了一名名叫 Irina (Shipka 饰) 的舞者来到他们的房间，随后 Sheridan 污染了 Mark 的药物供应。接下来的场面狂野而混乱，并以一种出人意料的方式达到高潮。Mason Thames (Sheridan)： 是的 [Dave]，告诉我们你是怎么拉裤子的。Kiernan Shipka (Irina)： Mason 和我当时在另一个房间喝着健怡可乐，掏出手机。我们就像“天哪！”Dave Franco (Mark)： 我不想吹得太过分，但我确实认为这是影史排名前三的“拉裤子”场景。Thames： 那场面太激烈了，伙计！把摄像机都震坏了。O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Davis)： 很暴力，非常暴力。Franco： 很棒的一点是，这部电影里的所有幽默，甚至是那个时刻，都是由一系列有趣的性格塑造引向这些爆发点的。这不是一部充满单句俏皮话的电影。
十三 | O’Shea Jackson Jr. 如何在 Idiots 的开场戏中流下真诚的泪水。除了 Idiots 的粗俗幽默和令人惊讶的暴力外，影片还包含了一些更严肃、写实的故事情节。在电影的第一个场景中，Jackson 在与说唱歌手兼演员 Killer Mike 的对手戏中经历了一个情感时刻，Davis 失去了工作。
以下内容包含 8 月 28 日上映电影 Idiots 的剧透。
