The Oakland School Board has taken a significant step towards ensuring clean drinking water at its schools.

But for some, the new policy does not go far enough.

Like many schools, numerous in Oakland have a lead problem. Water coming out of its faucets are testing positive for lead.

Many faucets have already been placed off limits or been replaced, but on Wednesday, the Oakland School Board made it official–to test a sampling of fixtures at all schools and replace pipes and fixtures when lead levels are found to be over 5 parts per billion.

That is significantly more stringent than federal regulations which are at 15 parts per billion but still not strong enough for some who prefer 1 part per billion.

There’s also concern that not every fixture is being checked.

The cost of this testing every fixture and replacing ones found with lead levels over the limit could cost an estimated at $38 million, not good for a cashed-strapped district, but the district is looking for funding.

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