Legislative Analysis
Phone: (517) 373-8080
DRINKING WATER PLANS AND TESTING FOR SCHOOLS
http://www.house.mi.gov/hfa
AND CHILD CARE CENTERS (“FILTER FIRST”)
Analysis available at
House Bill 4341 as enrolled http://www.legislature.mi.gov
Sponsor: Rep. Ranjeev Puri
House Bill 4342 as enrolled
Sponsor: Rep. Cynthia Neeley
Senate Bill 88 as enrolled
Sponsor: Sen. Sylvia A. Santana
House Committee (HBs 4341 and 4342): Health Policy
House Committee (SB 88): Natural Resources, Environmental, Tourism
and Outdoor Recreation [Discharged]
Senate Committee (HBs 4341 and 4342): Committee of the Whole
Senate Committee (SB 88): Energy and Environment
Complete to 10-18-23
(Enacted as Public Acts 154, 155, and 173 of 2023)
SUMMARY:
Taken together, House Bills 4341 and 4342 and Senate Bill 88 would require schools and child
care centers to develop a drinking water management plan within fifteen months after the bills
take effect and update the plan at least every five years. The plan would specify the locations
of water outlets, by water use and type of filtration, and regular replacement of filter cartridges.
Water would have to be tested every year (schools) or two years (child care centers), and water
could be provided for drinking only if the presence of lead was shown to be below specified
levels. The bills include signage, notification, and reporting requirements. By the end of the
2025-2026 school year, outlets in schools providing water for human consumption would have
to be either a filtered bottle-filling station or filtered faucet. The Department of Licensing and
Regulatory Affairs (LARA) and the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy
(EGLE) would have advisory responsibilities under the bills, and EGLE or its representative
would have to create a program to assist schools and child care centers in meeting the bills’
requirements.
House Bill 4341 would create a new act called the Clean Drinking Water Access Act. The bill
would require all public and nonpublic schools to develop a drinking water management plan
within 15 months after the effective date of the bill and make it available upon request to
EGLE, 1 school staff, parents and guardians of children enrolled in the school, and the general
public. The plan would have to specify the location of each water outlet, categorized as follows:
• The location where a water outlet to deliver water for human consumption will be
maintained, categorized as follows:
o The location where a filtered bottle-filling station will be maintained. At least
one station would have to be maintained for every 100 occupants of the school,
not including visitors or individuals attending special events.
1
References to EGLE in describing HB 4341 also include authorized agents or representatives of EGLE.
House Fiscal Agency Page 1 of 9
 o The location where a filtered faucet will be maintained. The faucets could be
maintained only when the installation of a filtered bottle-filling station is not
feasible but a water outlet for human consumption is necessary, such as in
kitchens, nurses’ stations, preschool classrooms, and teachers’ lounges.
• The location where a water outlet is maintained for purposes other than the above.
• The location where a water outlet will be shut off or rendered permanently inoperable.
Filtered bottle-filling station would mean an apparatus that meets all of the following
requirements:
• It is connected to customer site plumbing.
• It filters water and is certified to meet National Sanitation Foundation/
American National Standards Institute (NSF/ANSI) standard 53 for lead
reduction and NSF/ANSI standard 42 for particulate removal. 2
• The flow rate through it is paired to the specified flow rate of the filter cartridge.
• It has a light or other device to indicate filter cartridge replacement status.
• It is designed to fill containers for personal water consumption.
• It includes a drinking fountain.
Drinking fountain would mean a plumbing fixture that is connected to the potable
water distribution system and drainage system that allows a user to get a drink directly
from a stream of flowing water without using any accessory.
Filtered faucet would mean a faucet that includes at the point of use a filter that is
certified to meet NSF/ANSI standard 53 for lead reduction and NSF/ANSI standard 42
for particulate removal.
Each school would have to review and update the plan at least once every five years and make
changes as directed by EGLE or as needed to comply with the bill.
The plan also would have to establish a schedule for when each of the following will occur,
and schools would be required to comply with these schedules:
• Annual water sampling and testing of the filtered water at each filtered bottle-filling
station and filtered faucet to ensure that the filters are properly installed and provide
water with a lead concentration of not more than five parts per billion.
• Regular replacement of the filter cartridge for each filtered bottle-filling station and
filtered faucet in compliance with the manufacturer’s instructions or recommendations
of EGLE.
Water sampling and testing
The school would have to collect the water for the water sampling and testing required as
described above. The water would have to be drawn from all of the bubbler fixtures of the
filtered bottle-filling stations and filtered faucets and would have to be collected in 250-
milliliter bottles after a stagnation period of at least eight hours and before any water use occurs
at the school. Water testing would have to be conducted at a laboratory certified for lead and
copper testing for the approved U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) method.
2
See https://www.nsf.org/consumer-resources/articles/standards-water-treatment-systems
Also https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2018-
12/documents/consumer_tool_for_identifying_drinking_water_filters_certified_to_reduce_lead.pdf
House Fiscal Agency HBs 4341 and 4342 and SB 88 Page 2 of 9
 Bubbler fixture would mean a fixture on a drinking water fountain through which
water is forced up in a small arc from a nozzle that allows an individual to drink from
the arc directly.
If water sampling and testing indicate the presence of lead at a concentration of at least one
part per billion but not more than five parts per billion, the school would have to do all of the
following:
• Immediately check the status of the filter or filters at the bottle-filling station or filtered
faucet and replace the filter cartridge if the status light indicates that replacement is or
will soon be required.
• Ensure that the station or faucet is properly installed.
• Resample and retest the filtered water.
• If the resample and retest still indicate the presence of lead at a concentration of at least
one part per billion but not more than five parts per billion, do both of the following:
o Send EGLE a copy of the test results and a document listing the make and
model of the filtered bottle-filling station or filtered faucet and filter cartridge.
o Consult with EGLE and the manufacturer of the filtered bottle-filling station or
filtered faucet.
If water sampling and testing indicates the presence of lead at a concentration of more than
five parts per billion, the school would have to do all of the following:
• Immediately shut off the water outlet or render it inoperable.
• Post a conspicuous sign near the water outlet stating that it is inoperable because of
high lead concentration and maintain the sign until the outlet is returned to service.
• Replace the filter cartridge in the filtered bottle-filling station or filtered faucet.
• Resample and retest the water.
• If the resample and retest indicate the presence of lead at a concentration of at least one
part per billion but not more than five parts per billion, return the water outlet to service
and comply with the requirements described above for water with that level of lead.
• If the resample and retest still indicate the presence of lead at concentrations of more
than five parts per billion, do both of the following:
o Within 30 days after receiving the results, send EGLE a copy of the results and
send a notice to school staff and each parent or guardian of a student enrolled
in the school, in a manner determined by the school district, stating the amount
of lead in the water and including information provided by EGLE on the health
effects of lead exposure and ways to reduce childhood lead exposure.
o Develop a remediation plan in consultation with EGLE and incorporate the
remediation plan into the school’s drinking water management plan.
Duties of EGLE
EGLE would have to assist each school in maintaining compliance with the bill and would
have to do all of the following within six months after the bill takes effect:
• Provide a template for the plan.
• Make available annual training for school staff and school officials regarding the
sampling and testing protocol, reporting process for sampling and testing results, and
other activities relevant to compliance with the bill.
• Provide guidance on all of the following:
o Factors a school should consider with selecting filtered bottle-filling stations,
filtered faucets, and filter cartridges.
House Fiscal Agency HBs 4341 and 4342 and SB 88 Page 3 of 9
 o How to shut off a water outlet or render it permanently inoperable.
o How to flush a building’s cold water plumbing before installing new filtered
bottle-filling stations and filtered faucets.
o Common filtered bottle-filling station or filtered faucet installation and
operation errors and how to avoid them.
EGLE would have to provide and make available documents providing the guidance described
above no later than six months after the act takes effect. Before providing the documents,
EGLE would have to issue them as proposed guidance documents on its website and allow for
a 30-day public comment period.
School and Child Care Center Clean Drinking Water Fund
The bill would create the School and Child Care Center Clean Drinking Water Fund in the state
treasury. The treasurer could receive money or other assets from any source for deposit into
the fund and would have to credit to the fund interest and earnings from fund investments.
Money in the fund at the close of a fiscal year would remain in the fund and not lapse to the
general fund. EGLE would be the administrator of the fund for auditing purposes.
EGLE could expend money from the fund, upon appropriation, only to create and operate a
program to assist child care centers and schools with all of the following:
• The one-time acquisition and installation of filtered bottle-filling stations and filtered
faucets, in compliance with the plan. (If it would achieve cost savings over independent
purchases, EGLE could purchase and provide to program beneficiaries filtered bottle-
filling stations, filtered faucets, point-of-use filters, or filter cartridges.)
• Maintenance of filtered bottle-filling stations and filtered faucets and replacement of
filter cartridges, incompliance with the plan.
• Costs associated with water sampling and testing.
• Costs associated with mailing or delivering any water collected for water sampling and
testing.
EGLE could award grants to operate the program described above.
Other prohibitions and requirements for schools
Beginning 15 months after the bill’s effective date, a school would be prohibited from installing
a drinking fountain that is not a filtered-bottle filling station.
By the end of the 2025-2026 school year, each school would have to do all of the following:
• Install all filtered bottle-filling stations and filtered faucets as indicated in the plan and
not already in existence.
• Shut off any water outlet providing water for human consumption that is not a filtered
bottle-filling station or filtered faucet or render the outlet permanently inoperable.
• Post a conspicuous sign near each water outlet indicating whether or not the outlet is
intended to provide water for human consumption.
At the end of the 2025-2026 school year and annually thereafter, each school would have to
submit a document to EGLE, on a form and in a manner prescribed by EGLE, that certifies
that the school has complied with the requirements of the bill.
Other provisions
Finally, the bill states that the legislature would have to annually appropriate to EGLE an
amount sufficient to administer and comply with the bill. This provision, in itself, would not
House Fiscal Agency HBs 4341 and 4342 and SB 88 Page 4 of 9
 be binding and could function only as an expression of legislative intent. However, the bill also
provides that if, in a given fiscal year, the legislature has not appropriated sufficient funds to
EGLE to administer and comply with the bill, then schools are not required to comply with the
bill.
[Note that the bill does not specify who would make this determination of sufficiency, how it
would be made, or when in the fiscal year it would be made in order to ensure that schools are
given adequate notice of their responsibilities under the law.]
House Bill 4342 would amend the child care licensing act to require each child care center to
do all of the following, in a manner consistent with its drinking water management plan, within
two years after the bill takes effect:
• Post a conspicuous sign near each water outlet and drinking fountain indicating
whether or not the outlet is intended to provide water for human consumption. If the
water is intended for human consumption but the outlet is unfiltered, the sign would
also have to state that the water is unfiltered and could contain lead.
• Ensure that water the child care center furnishes to children for consumption is from a
water delivery service or from a filtered faucet or other filtered source certified to meet
NSF/ANSI standard 53 for lead reduction and NSF/ANSI standard 42 for particulate
removal.
• Make available to the public the results of all water sampling and testing conducted
under SB 88 and all filter and filter cartridge replacement dates for each filtered bottle-
filling station, faucet, or pitcher or other filtered source. The child care center would
have to notify the parent or guardian of each child enrolled in the child care center of
the availability of this information.
A child care center that is located in a school building that complies with HB 4341 would be
considered to comply with SB 88 and the requirements described above.
Duties of LARA
LARA, in coordination with EGLE, would have to assist each child care center in maintaining
compliance with SB 88 and the requirements described above by providing all of the following:
• A template for the drinking water management plan.
• A template for tracking filter and filter cartridge replacement dates and the results of
all water sampling and testing conducted under SB 88.
• Guidance documents on all of the following:
o Factors a center should consider when selecting filtered bottle-filling stations,
filtered faucets, and filters.
o How to shut off a water outlet or render it permanently inoperable.
o How to flush a building’s cold water plumbing before installing new filtered
bottle-filling stations and filtered faucets.
o Common filtered bottle-filling station or filtered faucet installation and
operation errors and how to avoid them.
LARA would have to provide and make available the guidance documents described above no
later than six months after the bill takes effect. Before providing the guidance documents,
LARA would have