School districts to undergo water filter updates

EASTPOINTE/ROSEVILLE — The water filters inside the classrooms and hallways in Eastpointe Community Schools and Roseville Community Schools will soon undergo updates.

Last month, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy awarded $50 million in grant funding to schools across the state for the installation of bottle-filling stations, faucet-mount filters and more.

The upgrades are designed to protect students from lead under the Michigan Filter First law, which Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed into law in October 2023.

Eastpointe Community Schools received a $137,584 grant to purchase bottle-filling units, faucet-mounted filters, filtered pitcher, and replacement filter cartridges.

Roseville Community Schools received a grant for $539,153 for bottle-filling units, faucet-mounted filters and  replacement filter cartridges.

According to Eastpointe Community Schools Executive Director of Business and Operations Robert Carlesso, the district has not yet received the grant money. The district will spend the money for the upgrades and then be reimbursed.

“There are water quality standards that go into effect next year,” Carlesso said before the district went on holiday break in December. “This is to offset the cost of that. This is for all of our buildings.”

Under the new law, schools and child care centers must complete a drinking water management plan by Jan. 24, 2025. Additionally, schools are required to have approved filters on all consumptive fixtures by the end of the 2025-2026 school year.

The Michigan Filter First law mandates schools and child care centers have ongoing water samplings and certify compliance with requirements once filters are installed. Schools must sample annually, and child care centers must sample every two years.

Carlesso said the Eastpointe district already performs water testing, which is paid for out of the general fund. The district will most likely go for bids this winter for the bottle-filling units, faucet-mounted filters, filtered pitchers and replacement filter cartridges purchased under the new law.

“We’ll know more in January once we start digging into the grant requirements,” he said.

At the Dec. 16 Roseville Community Schools Board of Education meeting, the school board voted 7-0 to give Director of Buildings and Grounds Joe Smith permission to seek bids from companies for the water filter project.

Once school officials receive bids, they will be presented to the school board for approval, either this month for next month. The plan is to begin the project during the summer of 2025 when students are on break.

“It’s going to be a big bid. I’m going to throw it out there, see what we get and come back,” Smith said at the meeting. “They’re saying every drinking fountain has to have a filter on it.”

Roseville is a bit ahead of the law. Not all the district’s drinking fountains need to be replaced because school officials had already changed some over the last couple of years to meet the new requirements. A total of 90 in-line filters and 42 drinking fountains will be changed out. All the drinking fountains will need to have a filter installed, along with a filter cleaner and a dirty indicator light to meet the new law mandates.

According to Smith, the district will use general fund dollars to absorb the costs of the annual water testing. The school districts also will be responsible to change filters regularly, which is another expense for the district moving forward.