Boxer plans hearing on toxic school drinking water

California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer said Wednesday that legislators will hold hearings to address toxic drinking water in the nation's schools following an Associated Press probe into the widespread problem.

Boxer, the head of the Senate Environment Committee, called for the hearings to be held in Washington this year after an AP investigation revealed unsafe levels of lead, bacteria and pesticides have surfaced in the water supplies at thousands of schools.

In the past decade, contaminants have been found in drinking fountains and school pipes in all 50 states in small towns and inner cities. But the problem has gone largely unmonitored by the federal government, even as the number of water safety violations has multiplied, according to The Associated Press.

Boxer, who chairs the Committee on Environment and Public Works that oversees the Environmental Protection Agency, has seized on the issue as a top priority. She has asked EPA officials to explain what actions they will take to protect school children from polluted water.

Aides for Boxer and Sen. Benjamin Cardin, a Maryland Democrat who leads a Senate subcommittee on water, attended the hour-and-a-half briefing with top EPA officials on Wednesday afternoon.

Among the issues discussed were the agency's inadequate record-keeping. The EPA only has authority to collect drinking water quality data from schools with wells, which represent 8 to 11 percent of the nation's schools.

Boxer aides were scheduled to meet with agency officials in two weeks to discuss the EPA's progress and any new legal authorities needed to protect students from toxic drinking water, said Peter Rafle, communications director for Boxer.