New safe drinking water plan for San Diego City Schools approved

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – The San Diego Unified School Board met today at 5 o’clock and unanimously approved a proposal to have “drinking water-filtration” in all of its schools.

The proposal is the result of something that happened in 2017. The state authorized California’s school districts to ask their water providers for a sampling of the schools’ drinking water.

The City of San Diego Water Department’s sampling of possible lead content in the water, particularly in the district’s older schools, was alarming.  It prompted a concerned district to ask the department to accelerate the testing. In all, 40 schools had to have their drinking water systems remediated because of lead content.

Components were either fixed or replaced. We should also note that the district was using a newly implemented standard of five parts per billion, versus a national and state standard of 15 parts per billion. The issue also began a pilot program at Henry Clay Elementary School in Rolando:  The installation of hydration stations and water fountains, all with filtered drinking water.

Putting such water filtration in all of the district’s schools will cost $12,000,000, much of the money coming from the Measure YY Bond in 2018.

The district-wide water plan also includes an even higher standard for lead content, one part per billion.