Less than a week from the start of the 2024-25 school year, Cumberland County Schools have examined district-wide tests to measure lead in water at schools.
The results?
Surprisingly good, according to the Cumberland County School official heading the testing.
Almost 31% of the 86 district schools that were tested found lead in the building’s water above the state “action level.” That level is 10 or more parts per billion of lead, which then triggers mitigation for the metal. All tests are from taps and fountains at schools used for drinking water and cooking and are taken after the water has sat for at least eight hours unused.
As of Aug. 21, ten schools have been tested but are still awaiting results.
“As old as our schools are, it’s gone better than expected,” said Donna Fields, executive director of operations for Cumberland County Schools.
Some county school buildings are 50 or 60 years old. Their age means they could have been built two decades before Congress’ ban, in 1986, of the use of lead in public water systems or plumbing in facilities meant for consumption. Given these facts, Fields said CCS’s ratio is “pretty good” and will only improve as mitigation is conducted.
The dangers lead poses
Lead is a toxic metal that was commonly used in plumbing and paint before being banned. North Carolinian’s water sources do not have naturally occurring lead, so any lead found in water comes from lead plumbing. As water travels through a lead pipe or other plumbing materials containing lead, it corrodes the metal.
“Water is a universal solvent — just look at the Grand Canyon — it’ll eventually dissolve everything, given enough time and right temperatures, pH and everything,” explained Jason Green, water treatment facilities manager for Fayetteville’s Public Works Commission. “It will absorb that lead into the water.”
Many of the lead pipes installed before their ban are still in use, according to a 2021 study from the environmental advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council. The study estimates North Carolina has 82,000 lead service lines across the state. Lead can also still be found in faucets and other fixtures.
Exposure to lead can cause serious health problems because it builds up concentration in the body with each exposure. Lead exposure can negatively impact the entire body, damaging the kidneys, brain and muscles. Children are particularly vulnerable to lead because they are still developing, damaging their nervous, reproductive and immune systems.
While a school’s drinking water only requires mitigation if it is detected to have 10 ppb of lead or higher, there is no safe amount of lead in water. In 1991, the Environmental Protection Agency set a lead in water level health goal — though not a legal requirement — of 0 ppb. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends there should not be more than 1 ppb of lead in water.
“We talk a lot about being safe from gun violence in the U.S., and that’s in the news a lot, and that’s kind of an acute stressor when there’s issues like that happening,” said Jennifer Hoponick Redmon, a senior environmental health scientist with RTI International. “But, lead in drinking water, it’s this chronic issue. It’s been an issue for eons, and it continues to be an issue.”
Hoponick Redmon is also the program director for Clean Classrooms for Carolina Kids, the state-mandated lead in water, lead paint and asbestos hazards testing and remediation program.
Getting lead out of district schools
Much of the lead found in district schools is from their taps, not from corrosion of service lines. Most elevated tests come from tilt skillet faucets, faucets attached to industrial pans called tilt skillets found in school cafeterias.
The schools that detected lead above the state action level either have or are currently conducting mitigation on those taps. North Carolina is one of only 12 states and the District of Columbia to require both testing and mitigation for lead in water in schools, according to a 2021 study from the National Association of State Boards of Education. No federal law requires schools to mitigate lead in their water.
Some of that mitigation conducted through Clean Classrooms for Carolina Kids is replacing whatever tap or fixture tested above the state action level, as was the case at Douglas Byrd Middle after a water fountain came back with a result of over 12 ppb and was replaced with a certified lead-free filtered fountain and bottle filler. Other times mitigation is putting up a sign designating the tap for hand-washing only.
“We actually have lead-certified filters and lead-free faucet fixtures and water fountains that can get shipped directly to facilities,” Hoponick Redmon said. “And, if they would like, we also have a plumber that will come on-site and actually do the installations for them.”
From the federal American Rescue Plan, $150 million of nonrecurring state dollars fund Clean Classrooms for Carolina Kids and provide all North Carolina schools and childcare centers with testing and mitigation through Nov. 30, 2026. Another over $1 million from the EPA will help the program continue efforts to address lead at childcare centers after November 2026.
Fields said some filters cost between $150 and $250 and must be replaced every 12 months. Maintenance and additional replacements are not covered by the program.
Any other funds for further mitigation will need to be requested from the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners, Fields said.
For tests above the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended 1 ppb, Clean Classrooms for Carolina Kids suggests free mitigation strategies like only using cold water for drinking and cooking and flushing the taps daily for one to two minutes. A filter is considered a low-cost solution.
“We still do recommend that they consider what we call no-cost clean water habits, or low-cost solutions to be implemented,” Hoponick Redmon said. “But that’s not covered by the program. If it’s below the action level [that triggers mitigation efforts], and if they do want to do follow-up testing below the action level, that’s also not covered by the program.”
A short history of lead regulation
North Carolina was ahead of much of the county for lead testing in its schools’ water and plumbing. In 2019, the state issued rules requiring childcare centers to test for lead in water through the Clean Water for Carolina Kids program. Rules passed in 2022 expanded that program into the Clean Classrooms for Carolina Kids program, requiring all public schools and childcare facilities to test and remediate all lead in water, lead paint and asbestos.
“We cannot make all of the infrastructure improvements with this funding that we have, but we can stop exposure, right?” Hoponick Redmon said. “And that’s our goal. Our goal is to stop exposure to these hazards to the degree possible.”
The federal government is also updating regulations for lead through revisions to the EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule. In 2021, rule revisions required public water systems like PWC to inventory their service lines and test for lead in water in elementary schools and daycare facilities. Further improvements are set to be finalized in October and would, among other things, lower the federal action level for lead to the same as North Carolina’s and require all lead pipes to be replaced within the next 10 years.
To comply with federal regulations, PWC, Fayetteville’s water utility, created an inventory of all its service lines and their connections to private lines through its Operation Clean & Clear. To date, PWC has not found any lead service lines in its system nor in any of those connecting to county schools. There are still about 31,500 unknown private service lines that PWC needs to inventory by Oct. 2027, per EPA regulations.
Michael Smith, water resources asset management coordinator at PWC, is confident that PWC will not find any lead in its system.
“Though the issues would be with fittings and faucets or something like that on the customer side,” Smith said.
PWC is still waiting on guidance from the N.C. Dept. of Environmental Quality to see whether it will need to re-test childcare centers and district elementary schools already tested under Clean Classroom for Carolina Kids. Current guidance from the EPA states PWC must test 20% of district elementary schools and childcare facilities annually for the next five years, starting in 2028.
“We’re hoping we can just provide them [PWC] with the results because it meets the same criteria as their sampling plan would need to,” said Fields. “It’d be kind of silly to have to take samples from taps you just sampled within six months
Results for lead in water, lead paint and asbestos can be found on Clean Classrooms for Carolina Kids’ website. Information about lead pipes in Cumberland County, including a map of PWC’s inventoried service lines, can be found on PWC’s Operation Clean & Clear website.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly indicated that a positive test is 10 parts per billion of lead in water. The detection limit for lead in water is 0.1 ppb or greater. This article has been updated with the correct information and to clarify North Carolina’s state action level for lead. CityView apologizes for this error.
CityView Reporter Morgan Casey is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Morgan’s reporting focuses on health care issues in and around Cumberland County and can be supported through the CityView News Fund.