COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Coldwater Community Schools has received a major grant to help them comply with new state requirements on drinking water in Michigan schools and daycares.
The Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy Filter First initiative requires schools and child care centers in Michigan to develop a Drinking Water Management Plan, install lead reducing filters on all consumptive fixtures, and test filtered water.
The state also made funding available for a one-time acquisition and installation of filtered bottle fill water coolers, point of use faucet filters, and certain maintenance and sampling costs.
Superintendent Paul Flynn says Nick Kanouse from the district’s Transportation, Grounds, and Maintenance department took the lead in the project, and this grant will help fund the work.
The Michigan state legislature appropriated $50 million in federal funding to reimburse districts, nonpublic schools, and licensed child care centers for the program.
Schools must sample their drinking water annually, and child care centers must sample every two years.
The careers center had this put in after Covid. But the ISD has the money to do it on their own.