INDIANAPOLIS — A new law takes effect July 1 that will speed up replacement of lead water lines throughout Indiana.
Governor Eric Holcomb signed Senate Bill 5 into law, which enables utility companies to replace lead service lines when property owners are unresponsive.
The federal EPA estimates Indiana has more than 265,000 customer owned lead water service lines, this despite the United States banning their installation back in 1986.
You can’t see or taste lead, but experts say it can cause a slew of health problems especially in children.
The new law comes as Indiana schools are grappling with how to keep lead out of their buildings and how to help students who have been poisoned.
In February, the Genius School, a charter school on the east side of Indianapolis, tested kindergarten and first grader’s blood and bones for lead exposure.
It’s part of a collaborative effort with the Marion County Public Health Department, the Greater Indianapolis NAACP, and researchers at Purdue University.
Weeks later, WRTV Investigates obtained the results for students at the Genius School.
It showed while none of the kids had elevated blood lead levels, meaning no students tested above the action level, which is 3.5 ug/dl.
However, their bones told a different story.
All of the students who participated in the bone test showed higher than normal amounts of lead.
It's not yet clear how they were exposed to lead, but often times people come into contact with lead at their home and school.
Purdue University Assistant Professor Aaron Specht said bone tests show a lot more than a simple blood test.
“We can actually take a measurement of someone's bone and get a reflective measure of 20-30 years of how much lead they've been exposed to,” said Specht. “It gives us a cumulative measure of exposure."
Specht said a blood test is only about 1 percent of the lead that’s in the body, compared to 90 percent for a bone test.
“Blood tests have a very, very short time in which they’re most effective and record the peak exposure time,” said Specht. “That time is about 30 days, so after 30 days you’ll have half of what you would have initially have from the peak exposure. For bone, it’s years or decades long.”
Teaonna Harris works for the Marion County Public Health Department.
“Get your kids tested,” said Harris.
She’s also been impacted personally—she says her daughter was lead poisoned.
“I had no awareness of lead,” said Harris.
An inspection found lead in the soil and paint inside their Marion County home. In fact, many Indianapolis houses were built before 1978 when lead paint was officially banned.
“We thought that my daughter was on the Autism spectrum,” said Harris. “We had no idea it was the lead that was giving her these types of characteristics. It's been pretty rough over the years."
Gary Holland with the Greater Indianapolis NAACP has been working for more than seven years to get students tested for lead exposure.
A recent WRTV Investigation found hundreds of Indiana schools showed high lead levels in their water.
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“Many of us have been lead poisoned and don’t even know it,” said Holland. “I think it’s very important for a teacher to know if they are working with a child that may have comprehension problems that they can not help.”
A new report, the ABCs of Academic Heath, by the Paramount Health Data Project shows lead poisoning is negatively impacting literacy rates among Indiana students.
"I don't think it's rocket science to say healthy kids are growing better,” said Dr. Addie Angelov, CEO of the project. “We now have a strong data sample— over 50,000 data points-across five years that show us that schools that are not contaminated with lead are scoring more than 76 points higher in reading than schools where we saw documented lead contamination."
The project studied three urban Indianapolis schools, including Ignite Academy, a formerly IPS-affiliated charter school.
The ABCs of Academic Health noted Ignite Achievement Academy’s water, “was found to have lead levels of an estimated four times higher than the legal limit,” during collections in 2016 and 2017.
In December 2021, Indianapolis Public Schools’ board voted not to renew its innovation agreement citing “low test scores, consistent enrollment declines, high suspension rates, and significant declines in staff retention.”
Shy Quon Ely served as Head of School for Ignite Achievement Academy.
“I thought the report vindicated our experience,” said Ely. “This health data project has illuminated the connection between health and academic achievement. The toxicity of the building we could not have predicted or planned for. But it did seemingly explain some of the issues that we were seeing."
Ely said the former Ignite Achievement Academy on West 25th Street, now called Liberty Grove, was plagued with lead issues in the paint and water.
"There's structural issues,” said Ely. “The report really highlighted some of those realities with our children and our families. Many of them while they were in that building for extended periods of time for years, they were also experiencing lead poisoning in their homes.”
Two years ago, they moved out and into a new building—the Genius School on North Sherman Drive.
Their previous experience with lead is a big reason why the Genius School is doing blood and bone tests on its students.
“It's vital, particularly early,” said Ely. “We know if lead toxicity is a thing, it can have significant and lasting impacts on the children's lives. We want to be able to catch that as early as we can. So, we can be as responsive as possible."
The Genius School will use the lead results to help better educate lead poisoned students and get them into therapy.
“We will do this every single year,” said Ely.
None of the children tested at the Genius School in February 2024 attended Ignite Achievement Academy, said Ely.
Ely is also looking at testing the water at the Genius School.
Because students are still in the building where Ignite Achievement Academy used to be, WRTV Investigates reached out to IPS and the current operator to find out what they’re doing to keep students safe.
“Indianapolis Public Schools does not have any evidence of elevated lead in its drinking water at school facilities,” read an IPS statement. “All IPS schools recently underwent comprehensive testing in collaboration with the Marion County Public Health Department.”
An IPS spokesperson has not provided anyone to speak with WRTV Investigates on camera to speak about lead.
“Any fixtures found to exceed EPA standards during that testing were promptly removed from service or replaced,” read the IPS statement. “IPS has also taken proactive measures by replacing all drinking fountains across the district with Elkay water coolers equipped with NSF/ANSI 53 water filters designed to filter out heavy metals.”
FULL STATEMENT FROM IPS
“According to the MCPHD report, and tests done by IPS, Indianapolis Public Schools does not have any evidence of elevated lead in its drinking water at school facilities. All IPS schools recently underwent comprehensive testing in collaboration with the Marion County Public Health Department.
Any fixtures found to exceed EPA standards during that testing were promptly removed from service or replaced. IPS has also taken proactive measures by replacing all drinking fountains across the district with Elkay water coolers equipped with NSF/ANSI 53 water filters designed to filter out heavy metals.
In the “Report on Lead in School Drinking Water,” IPS was listed as having zero (0) numbers of elevated samples, zero numbers of facilities with elevated samples, and noted as having passed all retesting results. Additionally, Liberty Grove, the school WRTV-6 has requested information on, was included in the report as having zero (0) elevated samples of lead in the drinking water after remediation.
Our commitment to ensuring clean drinking water aligns with recommendations outlined in the "ABCs of Academic Health" and the MCPHD report, both of which we have thoroughly reviewed. Since the filing of these reports in 2023 and 2019, IPS has prioritized the installation of filters at every drinking water tap and the replacement of fountains to uphold the highest standards of water quality.”
