Posted on 04/29/25
| News Source: WBAL
Baltimore, MD - April 29, 2025 - Recent test results show illegal levels of lead in the tap water at every public school district in the Baltimore area, 11 News Investigates has learned.
While the problem of lead contamination in Maryland is nothing new, years of statewide testing reveals it’s also not being fixed.
Upon review of data from the Maryland Department of the Environment, 11 News Investigates found that state-mandated testing in schools began in 2018. Five years of test data from the Baltimore area shows how much illegal lead levels were found in schools.
– Baltimore County Public Schools had 30%.
– Harford County Public Schools had 22%.
– Anne Arundel County Public Schools had 14%.
– Carroll County Public Schools had 13%.
– Baltimore City Public Schools had 10%.
– Howard County Public Schools had 9%.
The majority of the water tests with illegal levels came from school water fountains and other faucets.
Amy Adams, the president of the advocacy group Baltimore County Parent and Student Coalition, had a child graduate from the district. But even with that background, the test numbers at BCPS came as a shock to her.
“I think it’s concerning,” Adams told 11 News Investigates. “Safe drinking water in 2025 in Baltimore County should be something that’s guaranteed, not questioned.”
BCPS declined an interview request from 11 News Investigates, so WBAL-TV went to the superintendent’s monthly press availability.
When asked why Baltimore County schools has the highest lead levels of any district in the Baltimore area, Superintendent Myriam Rogers said: “I’m glad you mentioned ‘in the Baltimore area.’ One of the things you hear me say often is we have the third-oldest set of buildings in the state of Maryland, and so, there’s a direct correlation with older buildings, older infrastructure, and these results that you see.”
Rogers said parents are notified when school results are above the state legal limit, and that bottled water is provided in every school.
“But as we work through the capital projects and change the infrastructure, that’s going to be the way that we’re able to eliminate all of these,” Rogers told 11 News Investigates.
BCPS recently made strides as new data shows the number of water fountains shut off for illegal levels of lead decreased from last school year to this school year by more than 450, or a 38% drop.
Some Maryland children are bringing water bottles to school due to unsafe lead levels. But new, yearslong statewide lead-testing data shows children who might refill their water bottles at school could face a problem.
Ruth Ann Norton, the president of the nonprofit Green and Healthy Homes Initiative, has been battling lead issues in Baltimore and nationwide as a member of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee.
“We don’t send our kids to the classroom and expect them to be poisoned,” Norton told 11 News Investigates. “We talk a lot in this country about school shootings — and we should. We need to talk about making sure they’re protected from neurotoxins.”
Norton told 11 News Investigates that while she began her work three decades ago, lead contamination remains a problem today in different forms.
“We shouldn’t be talking about lead 31 1/2 years later,” Ann Norton told 11 News Investigates.
Norton explained why it’s important for school districts to test school water annually, telling 11 News Investigates: “It takes very little lead to affect and impact cognitive learning. We have to cut out all sources, whether it’s cinnamon in applesauce, whether it’s the paint in houses, or certainly the water that’s going into our kids’ water bottles.”
Each year, as the water test results come back with high levels of lead, school districts cite the overwhelming costs of replacing lead pipes and fixtures.
“I think that’s both a legislative issue, it’s a local City Council, County Council issue, to say, ‘What value are you putting on this?'” Norton said. “We have to remove every source of exposure. This is a critical source of exposure, even if it isn’t the prominent source of exposure for kids in Maryland.”