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The power of the press?

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* Friday afternoon, the Tribune published a story entitled “Bill to require school lead testing stalls in Springfield“…

Despite renewed national attention to the dangers of lead plumbing, most schools and day care centers still aren’t required to guarantee the safety of drinking water provided to children who are most vulnerable to the toxic metal. […]

Given the widespread use of lead in Illinois during the last century — Chicago required lead plumbing until it was banned nationwide in 1986 — Attorney General Lisa Madigan and public health advocates are pushing legislation that would require every Illinois school and day care center to regularly test water for a potent neurotoxin that can trigger learning disabilities and violent behavior. […]

But with only two days remaining in the current legislative session, the attorney general’s bill is on hold in a House committee, stalled after Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration announced it opposed the measure and proposed rival legislation in late November.

The governor’s bill would allow schools to conduct detailed plumbing inventories instead of testing drinking fountains for lead. It also would order state health officials to develop their own standards for lead in drinking water — a task traditionally handled by federal authorities after years of study. […]

“If you don’t require testing, how are you supposed to know if there is a problem?” said Jennifer Walling, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council, which helped draft the attorney general’s legislation. “The governor’s approach also could end up being more expensive for schools that already are concerned about costs.”

The article noted that the Rauner administration “appeared to soften their opposition to Madigan’s bill Friday.” Notably, this change apparently came after reporter Michael Hawthorne started checking around.

* From the governor’s press office this morning…

The following is an excerpt of a story from Politico Illinois:

Illinois public schools and licensed daycare facilities will be required to test drinking water for lead contamination under a major compromise reached by key stakeholders, parties involved in the deal told POLITICO Illinois.

Long-running negotiations among environmental groups, lawmakers, the Illinois Attorney General’s Office and the governor’s office culminated in a compromise late last week, according to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office and the Illinois Environmental Council. […]

The agreed terms include a framework of the existing bill, pushed for months by Lisa Madigan’s office and others: schools built before the year 2000 that serve students fifth grade and younger, would be required to test for lead in all its drinking water sources, as well as sources of water used for cooking at the schools. Also, licensed day care centers would also be required to test water sources. A compromise effort ramped up by Rauner’s office since the veto session helped bring opponents on board, Walling said. […]

Walling said the amendment that is expected to be added to the bill on Monday is “the framework that the AG had been working on,” and includes technical tweaks pursued by Rauner’s office: “The agencies and the governor’s office did work (to bring compromise); they helped bring major stakeholders on board,” she said. […]

“Since its introduction, the administration met regularly with the proponents and the other stakeholders throughout the fall, as well as during the fall veto session and all of December to address some of the concerns raised with the original language,” (Gov. Rauner) spokeswoman Allie Bovis said.

However, a source close to the negotiations said today that “the only opponents the Rauner administration helped to bring on board was their own agencies.”

Three Rauner agencies had registered in opposition to the bill last year.

…Adding… The Rauner folks claim they told the Tribune on Friday that a “deal was done,” but the paper went ahead with the story anyway.

…Adding More… That same source close to the negotiations said that on Friday the Rauner administration was merely attempting to get itself to neutral.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jan 9, 17 @ 10:41 am

Comments

Rich, one of the opponent groups has been municipalities that supply drinking water. The bill, as proposed, required the municipality to conduct lead testing in school facilities. Most municipalities do not test their own water, they use a third party service. Thus, it was merely an added cost to municipal water suppliers. In addition, municipalities have no control over building codes for public schools. Even if the municipality identified a lead hazard, it would have no authority to enforce a corrective action.

Comment by Anon Monday, Jan 9, 17 @ 10:46 am
There’s a potentially simple and low-cost solution: when the first staffer gets to the building in the morning, turn the faucet on and leave it on. If you want to get fancy, do a calculation of the total volume of pipe between the service main and the building as well as the flow rate of the faucet. Make sure a couple volumes or more are dumped each morning.

Or just do what Madison WI did–get rid of all the lead mains. It could be cheaper than all this testing, and the testing does nothing to ensure the quality of the water at the time of drinking or cooking.

Comment by Lefty Lefty Monday, Jan 9, 17 @ 11:08 am
This administration frames everything as Rauner being the ‘great compromiser’ and gets things done when he has opponents willing to compromise. Everything leads back to because…Madigan either explicitly or implicitly.

Comment by Cubs in '16 Monday, Jan 9, 17 @ 11:11 am
I would think the lead the lead flying in Chicago would be a bigger concern that this. Time for action or we will be talking about a murder rate over 1000 Chicago next year.

Comment by Nieva Monday, Jan 9, 17 @ 12:21 pm