热门搜索: 　如果我爱你

听见你的声音

How Far Will Montana’s Push to Remove Lead from School Drinking Water Go?_我的网站

肖申克的救赎

A |     近日，内丘县扁鹊客栈。    

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.
。当第一缕晨光越过山峦洒在窗前，室外鸟鸣声声。北京游客张利军拉开窗帘，走到露台上深吸一口新鲜空气，神清气爽。

近日，内丘县“扁鹊湖村骑”活动中，骑行爱好者沿着扁鹊湖骑行环线畅享骑行乐趣。刘继东摄张利军是80后，长期高强度工作让他身心疲惫。趁着休年假，他和朋友来到内丘开启一场慢旅行。抵达后的第一天，张利军和朋友登扁鹊山、逛扁鹊庙，沿着蜿蜒的山路走走停停，沉醉在青山绿水间。晚上回到客栈，泡上一壶酸枣芽茶，点燃助眠崖柏香薰，躺在助眠床垫上，伴着阵阵虫鸣安然入眠。

B | “来到这里，仿佛把城市喧嚣和工作烦恼都隔绝在外，身心得到彻底放松。”张利军高兴地说。近年来，内丘县依托独特的生态资源和扁鹊文化底蕴，以扁鹊庙为核心规划建设扁鹊康养度假区，打造扁鹊山、扁鹊湖等人文生态景观，研发药膳50余种，在酒店民宿融入25项健康睡眠场景，为游客带来深度睡眠体验。

C | “丰富多元的康养业态，吸引了越来越多的京津游客来到内丘。”扁鹊客栈负责人郝香国介绍，其中有不少是回头客，有的还带动身边人前来游玩。去年8月，饱受创业压力的北京游客郑好来到内丘，游古村、逛景点、品药膳，入住助眠客栈，积压的焦虑和疲惫一扫而空。今年5月起，郑好将个人的治愈体验转化为文旅项目，面向京津的高压力群体、亚健康人群等，每月组织三天两夜的内丘深度静养疗愈游。游客们在云雾缭绕的扁鹊山前练习八段锦，在扁鹊客栈冥想静心……整个旅程集助眠静养、健康管理、药膳调理于一体，让大家放慢脚步，舒缓情绪、调养身心。内丘康养游，不仅有“静”的一面，还融入了“动”的元素。去年以来，该县将骑行运动融入文旅康养产业，重点打造了扁鹊湖骑行环线和扁鹊药谷特色骑行赛道，在骑行驿站、酒店投放自行车，方便游客取用体验，推动骑行运动与自然风光、特色中药材种植、扁鹊康养融合发展。“今年，我们创新骑行场景，在扁鹊湖骑行环线常态化举办‘扁鹊湖村骑’活动，引导群众健康骑行。”内丘县委宣传部副部长王瑶介绍，“扁鹊湖村骑”由各乡镇轮流举办，同时设立乡镇特色市集，展销本地特色农产品。前几日，天津游客杨国昊租了一辆山地自行车，穿戴好骑行设备，加入五郭店乡大众骑行队伍，在蜿蜒起伏的赛道上享受骑行快乐。杨国昊是内丘康养游的忠实粉丝，每年都要来内丘待上几天，通过“中医+运动”疗法调理睡眠。当刷到“扁鹊湖村骑”活动信息时，他再次来到内丘。逛特色市集、体验艾灸理疗、品尝杂粮馒头，还买了演武川红薯粉条、富家沟绒花茶等当地特色农产品……“这就是内丘的迷人之处，总能在充满烟火气的活动中找到心安之处，给身体、心灵放个假。

D | ”杨国昊高兴地说。（日报记者 闫德见）。

Current article:http://or6sfdj.bianneixuanbingqinyouxie.buzz/list_05w1t/dc1.html

Published on:13:38:56


栏目相关

热门排行