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Georgia gets $2.4 million for lead control in schools and child care centers

A glass of water from the tap, in New York, May 2023. The Biden administration announced Tuesday federal grants to reduce lead in schools and child care facilities. (Thea Traff/The New York Times)
A glass of water from the tap, in New York, May 2023. The Biden administration announced Tuesday federal grants to reduce lead in schools and child care facilities. (Thea Traff/The New York Times)
By
July 26, 2023

The Biden administration will put $58 million into reducing lead in schools and child care facilities, with Georgia receiving about $2.4 million.

The funding, announced this week, is coming from the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act (WIIN), which allows states to use the funds to help with removing lead from drinking water at schools. It comes out of Biden’s U.S. Lead Pipe and Paint Plan, which plans to replace lead pipes, lead paint and clean up drinking water.

There is no safe amount of lead in anyone’s body. Even small amounts can cause behavioral and learning problems in children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Children younger than 6 are at highest risk for these problems, as they are still developing, research shows. Too much lead can cause seizures or even death. Lead can be found in some children’s toys or water, CDC research shows.

Georgia’s no stranger to these issues, according to one report. In an analysis earlier this year by Environment America, a national network based in Denver, over half the country, including Georgia, got an F for their regulations toward lead in schools’ drinking water.

The Georgia Legislature last year passed the Childhood Lead Exposure Control Act, which set the lead exposure limit from 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood, to the CDC-recommended 3.5 micrograms per deciliter. The state invested $1.8 million into that effort, which allows for more homes to be inspected and treated for lead.

The Biden administration hopes the grants will help marginalized communities. On average, Black children have twice the amount of lead in their blood compared to white children, according to the CDC. Older homes, which are commonly found in Black neighborhoods, could still contain lead in the plumbing and paint, according to the Duke University Global Health Institute.

“Every kid, really every person in America, deserves to have clean air and to drink clean water,” Mitch Landrieu, senior adviser to the president, said in a telephone interview.

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