July 25, 2019 (mwfDailynews.com)-According to a statewide investigation conducted by WFTS-Tampa Bay late last year, 68% of Florida’s school districts do not test for lead in drinking water, or only partially test. Further, according to this same investigation, Gulf County’s public schools do not test for lead in the water, but, rather, rely on public utilities to perform such testing. However, as the recent public water debacle in Flint, Michigan has shown, and as reputable and independent experts have been warning for more than a decade, public utility testing for lead cannot be relied upon to protect our children’s health.
Earlier this year, Florida Senator Janet Cruz sponsored a bill, SB 66, that would’ve added water filters in all of Florida’s older schools (including ours in Gulf County) to filter out lead particles from corroded pipes. As Ms. De La Vega’s recent Letter to the Editor pointed out, however, SB 66 failed in Florida’s 2019 legislative session. Admirably, in response to this temporary legislative setback, Senator Cruz has started a $250,000 fundraising effort to add water filters to Hillsborough County’s 136 schools.