The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently awarded $321,498 to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals to help identify sources of lead in drinking water in schools or child care facilities. The funding will help protect children in disadvantaged communities and makes progress on implementing the federal action plan to reduce childhood lead exposures.

EPA Regional Administrator Ken McQueen said, “We are taking additional steps to identify and reduce lead contamination in schools across the county, preventing children from exposure to lead is an important public health priority for this administration.”

Under EPA’s new Voluntary Lead Testing in Schools and Child Care grant program, EPA has awarded $43.7 million in grants towards funding the implementation of testing for lead in drinking water. 

This funding is a resource that creates or expands programs to test for lead in drinking water at schools and child care programs in states and the District of Columbia.

Reducing Lead in Drinking Water in Schools will be used by the state of Louisiana to assist schools in implementing lead in drinking water testing including identifying sources of lead such as fountains.

In addition to this, the agency is taking other significant actions to modernize aging water infrastructure and reduce exposure to lead.

Click here for additional details on this grant and others like it.