PGCPS Letter To Parents and Staff on Sept 21, 2017 Misinforms About Lead In Water Contamination

PGCPS sent out the following letter to staff last week. Read it below this post or link here. 

THE GOOD NEWS
1. Sinks in bathrooms will have signs telling students and staff not to drink the water. 
2. The County is understanding that the community is aware that there are unsafe lead levels in the water and that children and staff have been drinking this water. 

THE BAD NEWS
1. The information glosses over the fact that the water instill contaminated with lead and children have been exposed to unsafe levels. 
2. The County still refuses to adequately address the lead contamination by setting a safe level in the water. They still allow 10 ppb lead in the water. They SHOULD be allowing only 0 ppb of lead in the water. No amount of lead is safe for children. Read about safe water levels here. 

MOST IMPORTANTLY
1. The county is posting what one could argue is false information. 

• Misleading Statement: The County states "Sources have been turned off as a precautionary measure when major concerns arose over the quality of drinking water."  This is an inaccurate way of describing the situation and avoids the fact that sources were turned off because high lead levels were found.  Sources were turned off because lead in excess of EPA regulations was found. See the documentation of high lead levels on this page with all the lead testing information. 

• Misleading Statement: PGCPS sent out a press release entitled, " PGCPS Continues Testing to Ensure Safe Drinking Water in All Schools and Offices" This could be considered false. There are no assurances of safe drinking water. Safe drinking water is not ensures. The headline should read "PGCPS Continues Testing of Drinking Water in All Schools and Offices And Has Found Lead Contamination: Many Water Sources Remain Untested And Could Be Lead Contaminated. Parents Should Get Children Lead Tested" 

• Inadequate Signage: The signs are really not adequate and could be done in a way that reaches the students like a cartoon image with an x over a person drinking the water. Kindergarteners do not read. The ALL CAPS is not the best way to to relay the information. More thought and creativity needs to go into these important signs. 

When will Prince George's County be honest with the students, staff and parents ? 

1. When the County inform the PGCPS community that many sources which have been on for years are lead contaminated and were only recently tested? Children have been drinking lead contaminated water for years. 
2. When the County inform the PGCPS community that many sources which are still on are lead contaminated? They have not been tested yet at the county is leaving them on. PGCPS is currently allowing children to drink lead contaminated water because these sources are not yet tested. 
3. When the County inform the PGCPS community that they have set an "allowable lead in water limit" of 10 ppb based on no science whatsoever?  PGCPS should informing the  community that the EPA has a health standard for lead which is below 0 ppb. PGCPS should informing the  community that the American Academy of Pediatrics has a health recommendation for lead which is  0 ppb. PGCPS allows 10 ppb of lead in water, ten times the safe health level by the EPA and American Academy of Pediatrics. (Read more here) 

See what was sent to students and staff here. The link shows the PDF but I could not download it. See screensaves below. 

September 2017 Lead testing information from PGCPS Water Quality Page.