2025 Public Health Laboratory Newsroom
How Minnesota Tests for Lead in Water at Schools, Child Care Centers
In 2014, widespread lead contamination in the Flint, Michigan water system attracted national attention. Both the federal and state legislatures across the United States responded by passing new laws to better monitor lead in drinking water.
A Minnesota law passed in 2017 and amended in 2023 created one of the strongest systems in the nation for testing for lead in the water at public schools, charter schools, and licensed child care centers. Every such facility must take a sample from every water source used for consumption in its buildings once every five years. The facility must then send the samples either to the Minnesota Public Health Laboratory or a private lab for testing. If tests show any sample has an elevated level of lead, the facility must fix the problem and confirm levels have been reduced.
Because of this law, the number of water samples tested for lead from schools and child care centers by the Minnesota Public Health Laboratory has risen from 30-40 per year before 2022 to more than 5,000 in 2024. Results have already led to many remediation actions ranging from letting water run before using it to replacing pipes.
Supplementing Regular Drinking Water Testing
For decades, drinking water from all public water systems in Minnesota has been tested for dozens of contaminants, including lead, on a regular basis. The Environmental Laboratory, a section of the Minnesota Public Laboratory, receives more than 25,000 drinking water samples a year from locations in every corner of the state. If the lab gets any result for any contaminant above a certain threshold, the public water system is notified and must resolve the source of the problem.
Even with this regular testing in place, there is still a danger that lead could accumulate in water just before being used. Buildings can have pipes or solder that leach lead into water and raise levels above acceptable thresholds.
As part of the newer program, Minnesotan schools and child care centers must submit samples from water that has been sitting in their buildings’ pipes for between 8 and 18 hours. This is usually the first water pulled from a drinking fountain, faucet, or other source in the morning before the facility opens.
If the Environmental Laboratory or a private lab discovers that any sample contains 5 parts per billion of lead or more, the facility that sent the sample must remediate the problem. The federal Environmental Protection Agency mandates 15 parts per billion as the trigger level for water systems to take action.
The Minnesota program focuses on schools and child care centers because children are especially vulnerable to lead poisoning. Children can absorb lead 4 to 5 times more readily than adults can from the same water source. Lead poisoning can cause permanent damage to children’s developing nervous systems, leading to slow development or causing learning, behavior, and hearing problems.
Reporting Results to the Public
Another requirement in the lead testing program is that the Minnesota Department of Health must report test results from schools and child care centers to the public. See the Results and Metrics section of the department’s Drinking Water in Schools, Child Cares and Head Start Programs section.
An interactive map in this section shows test results for individual Minnesota schools and child care centers. It is important to note that most facilities have dozens of taps. If only one sample from one tap shows a level above the threshold of 5 parts per billion, the facility will be represented by a red circle on the map.
Of the more than 11,100 water samples tested by the Environmental Laboratory for this program at this writing, 62.2 % of facilities had no detections for lead, 28.9 % had at least one detection that was less than 5 parts per billion, and only 8.8% of facilities had to take remediation action due to a detection at 5 parts per billion or higher.
Public schools and licensed child care providers can apply for free test kits through the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Grant Program. There is also a Lead Remediation in Drinking Water grant to help facilities remediate sources of lead infiltration. If you represent a school or child care center, please review these grant opportunities and engage in the lead testing program.
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