Sarah Hess started taking her toddler, Josie, to Mickey Markey Playground in 2010 because she thought it would be a safe place to play after Josie had been diagnosed with lead poisoning.

Hess had traced the problem to the crumbling paint in her family’s century-old home. While it underwent lead remediation, the family stayed in a newer, lead-free house in the Bywater neighborhood near Markey, where Josie regularly played on the swings and slides.

“Everyone was telling us the safest place to play was outside at playgrounds, so that’s where we went,” Hess said.

Josie’s next blood test was a shock. “It skyrocketed,” Hess said. Josie’s lead levels had leapt to nearly five times the national health standard.

When the soil at Markey was tested in late 2010, it too was found to have dangerously high levels of lead. But the city took no meaningful action to inform Markey’s users or make the park safe. Parents started posting warning signs at the park and flooded City Hall with outraged calls and emails. Holding Josie in her arms, Hess made an impassioned speech to the City Council.

In short order, the city had hired a company to test Markey and other parks, and pledged to fix the lead problem wherever it was found.

“I couldn’t have been more pleased,” Hess said. “They were totally into it. My impression was they were going to make them all lead-free parks.”

But a Verite News investigation conducted over four months in 2025 found that lead pollution in New Orleans parks not only persists, it is more widespread than previously known. Dozens of city parks with playgrounds remain unsafe, including Markey and others that underwent city-sponsored lead remediation in 2011. The city does not appear to have conducted any major remediation or lead testing of parks since that time.

The findings indicate that city officials fell short in their cleanup efforts then, and that a very large number of New Orleans children are exposed to excessive amounts of lead now, said Howard Mielke, a retired Tulane University toxicologist and one of the nation’s leading experts on lead contamination.

“It’s a failed program,” he said. “They didn’t do what they needed to do to bring the lead levels down in a single park.”

Verite News reporters tested hundreds of soil samples from 84 city parks with playgrounds in fall 2025. Adrienne Katner, a lead contamination researcher with Louisiana State University, verified the results. The testing found that about half the parks had lead concentrations that exceed established in 2024 for soil in urban areas.

“I am surprised they haven’t been tested and mitigated,” said Gabriel Filippelli, an Indiana University biochemist who studies lead exposure. “If there’s evidence of kids playing in soils that are as high as [Verite’s testing] described, that’s kind of horrifying.”

Public health researchers and doctors say that children under 6 absorb lead-laden dust more easily than adults, contaminating their blood and harming the long-term development of their brains and nervous systems. There is no known safe exposure level for children, and even trace amounts can result in behavioral problems and lower cognitive abilities.

Find the lead levels at your playground

New Orleans is in financial straits with a of about $220 million, and it’s unclear what priority or resources Mayor Helena Moreno will, or even can, allocate to restart lead remediation efforts. In response to the financial crisis, Moreno has eliminated dozens of positions and plans to one day per pay period to save money. Moreno’s administration did not respond to requests for comment.

The city doesn’t routinely test for lead in parks, said Larry Barabino, chief executive officer of the New Orleans Recreation Development Commission, the agency that oversees most of the city’s parklands. He confirmed the last significant effort to test parks ended in 2011.

He called Verite’s results “definitely concerning” and pledged to work with city departments and local experts to potentially remediate unsafe parks.

“Safety is our number one priority here at NORD,” Barabino said. “If there’s anything that’s a true environmental concern or risk, that’s something that we believe in definitely making sure we take action.”

Andrea Young heard similar pledges 14 years ago. Like Hess, Young had a child who frequented Markey and had high lead levels in her blood. The mothers helped form a community group called NOLA Unleaded that pushed the city to clean up Markey and other parks. Young thought they had succeeded, but said she now realizes that the city had not done enough.

“It makes me question the value of the work that (the city) did, and the safety we felt in letting our kids play there again,” Young said with a trembling voice. “It just sort of shakes me up a little bit, you know?”

Testing New Orleans parks

Verite News conducted soil tests on the city parks that property inventories and maps list as having play structures. Samples were taken from surface soil, which is most likely to come into contact with children’s hands and toys or be inhaled when kicked up during play or blown by the wind.

Lead is typically found in very small amounts in natural soil. The average lead abundance in U.S. soils is 26 parts per million, equivalent to less than an ounce of lead per ton of soil.

Soil samples collected by Verite from New Orleans parks averaged about 121 ppm—nearly five times the national average.

The federal hazard level for lead in soil was 400 ppm , when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Joe Biden lowered it to 200 ppm for most residential areas and 100 ppm in areas like New Orleans with multiple sources of lead exposure, including contaminated soil, lead paint and .

More of a guide than a mandate, the EPA screening levels can steer federal cleanup actions and are often adopted by state and city governments to inform local responses to lead contamination.

California has long had a much of 80 ppm. Of the New Orleans parks Verite tested, 52 – or about two-thirds – had results that fail California’s standard.

In October, President Donald Trump’s administration rolled back the EPA screening standards. The administration retained the 200 ppm threshold for residential areas but eliminated the 100 ppm level for areas with multiple lead sources.

The administration didn’t dispute the validity of the 100 ppm threshold, but that a single level “reduces inconsistent implementation and provides clarity to decision makers and the public.”

The change, according to Mielke, doesn’t align with the science, which has long shown that children are harmed when exposed to soil with levels below 100 ppm. He was one of several scientists who had pushed for lower thresholds since the EPA established its first screening levels more than 30 years ago.

Mielke said the 100 ppm screening level should still be applied in urban areas, especially New Orleans. The city has a long history of soil contaminated with lead from a combination of sources, including lead-based paint, leaded gasoline and emissions from waste incinerators and other industrial facilities. Lead particles spread easily by wind, eventually settling in the topsoil.

Verite found lead levels above 100 ppm at numerous places that get heavy use by children. Lead contamination more than four times that level was recorded near the slides at Markey, outside a playhouse in Brignac Park near Magazine Street and at a well-worn spot under an oak tree at Desmare Park in Bayou St. John.

Elevated lead levels tended to follow the age of the neighborhood. The city’s older neighborhoods, including the Irish Channel and Algiers Point, had some of the highest lead levels, while Gentilly and New Orleans East, which were developed mostly after the 1950s, tended to be lower, according to Verite’s findings.

The highest lead levels were found at Evans Park in the Freret neighborhood. Beside a low-hanging oak branch, on ground worn bare by children’s play, Verite recorded lead at 5,998 ppm, nearly 60 times the urban soils threshold.

Search all of Verite News’ test results

Verite spoke to more than a dozen parents at playgrounds across the city, and most were surprised at the levels of lead in the parks.

In the Irish Channel, Meg Potts watched her son run around the dusty playground at Brignac. All of Verite’s samples at the park surpassed the threshold the EPA deemed safe for urban areas, reaching nearly 600 ppm.

Potts knew high lead levels existed in the city, but didn’t realize her neighborhood park could be a source of exposure for her son.

“ I’m just thinking about all of this now because he’s had to go in and have his lead tested,” she said. “He’s like right on the cusp of having too high lead.”

The invisibility of lead makes it challenging for parents to manage among other priorities. Meghan Stroh, whose children often play at Markey, said it’s hard for parents to protect their children from every threat, but tackling lead at parks is one way the city could help.

“It’s a concern that I have amidst a myriad of others,” she said while holding her 10-month-old daughter on her hip. “So, it would be nice to have one thing checked off the list.”

Katner, the LSU researcher, said Verite’s results can serve as a starting point for city officials to conduct more comprehensive testing in parks, noting that even a single lead hotspot in a park is concerning.

“ It doesn’t matter where it is in the soil; there’s exposure there,” she said. “The kid playing in that part of the park is going to get the highest dose.”

A legacy of lead

Before the 1970s, lead was nearly everywhere. A that the vast majority of the U.S. population born between 1960 and 1980 was poisoned by dangerously high levels of lead in early childhood. On average, lead exposure has resulted in a loss of 2.6 IQ points for more than half the population through 2015.

Lead pollution from cars spread into areas near roads, especially major thoroughfares, until leaded gasoline was phased out by 1996. Similarly, emissions from trash incinerators and industrial sites contaminated the surrounding soil. New Orleans had at least eight incinerators that blew toxic gases and lead dust over several neighborhoods, including Algiers Point and St. Roch, until they were closed in the 1970s and ‘80s.

Today, the most pervasive source of lead in soil is degraded paint. Lead-based paint was used extensively for homes and buildings until it was banned in 1978. In New Orleans, most of the houses were built before 1980, according to the . As the paint deteriorates, Tulane University epidemiologist Felicia Rabito said it can chip or turn into toxic dust.

“ The leaded paint goes straight into the dust and it goes straight into the soils, which is a major source of exposure for young children in the city,” said Rabito, who studies lead poisoning and other health conditions.

Children under 6 years old are especially vulnerable, in part because they love to stick their hands in their mouths. Rabito stressed that kids don’t have to eat the soil directly to be harmed. Children putting their thumbs in their mouths after playing on a seesaw or eating a dropped Cheerio can be enough.

Even a one-time exposure to contaminated soil can raise the level of lead in a child’s blood, Rabito said. They’re at an even higher risk if they have a calcium deficiency.

”Lead mimics calcium, so the body essentially thinks that the lead is calcium,” Rabito said. After the lead enters the bloodstream, it’s hard to fully remove. Most of it is stored long-term in the body’s bones, accumulating over time and .

Rabito recommended that parents steer clear of contaminated playgrounds because it’s hard to avoid exposure.

The only way to know if a child has lead poisoning is a medical test. By

Louisiana healthcare providers to ensure every child between 6 months and 6 years of age receives at least two blood tests by age 1 and age 2.

But the law did not include a way to enforce those testing requirements, so many providers don’t test, according to a from the Louisiana Department of Health. The screening rate has always been very low in New Orleans, Rabito said. In 2022, fewer than one in 10 children under 6 years old were screened for lead poisoning in the city, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“ There’s not anything that we can say about lead poisoning or lead levels in children in Orleans Parish with any scientific certainty,” Rabito said. “ As you see from your own testing, there are different pockets of contamination depending upon where you’re playing. Parents really need to get their children tested.”

Limited soil testing, patchy fixes

In 2010, Claudia Copeland joined Hess and other Markey regulars in having their kids tested for lead. One of Copeland’s children, born in Germany, had a blood lead level considered normal at the time. But her younger, New Orleans-born child showed elevated levels that set off alarm bells for Copeland, a molecular biologist.

“There really is no safe level, but it was really bad,” she said.

Copeland hurriedly made signs and posted them around the park. “THE SOIL IN MARKEY PARK IS TOXIC!” they blared in big black letters.

“The city was aware, but they just were not doing anything,” Copeland said. “Parents needed to know. We were all so ignorant about what was in the soil. You know, we’re all saying ‘a little dirt never hurt.’”

Outcry from parents prompted the city to first fence off and padlock Markey, and then promise a more comprehensive response.

The New Orleans health commissioner at the time, Karen DeSalvo, said the city should do “everything we can to understand what the risk might be and to remediate it.” But she also appeared to minimize the dangers of lead at city parks, saying other health risks, like the flu, were greater.

“In the scheme of the many public health challenges that kids have, it’s not the greatest challenge, honestly,” DeSalvo in February 2011.

Then-Mayor Mitch Landrieu was more definitive, pledging a swift, far-reaching action.

“The city will take all necessary measures to investigate possible lead contamination in other parks and playgrounds and remediate them as soon as possible,” he said .

Two months later, testing and remediation were completed at several parks. Members of NOLA Unleaded celebrated and brought their kids back to familiar playgrounds.

But Verite’s review of work orders shows that the city’s testing and remediation efforts were limited to a small number of parks. Despite city leaders’ assurances of a broad response, only 16 parks were tested in 2011, according to documents obtained through public records requests.

Mielke and NOLA Unleaded’s members believed most or all of the city’s parks were tested, pointing to Landrieu’s promises and an that reported that the city agreed to “test all of the public parks in the city.”

“I guess I kind of believed that, and then you realize that that’s not actually true,” said Young after learning the city’s testing was more limited than she thought. “If the majority of the parks they tested were high (in lead), what would make them think all the others are fine?”

Landrieu did not respond to a request for comment. DeSalvo, who retired last year as Google’s chief health officer, said “extremely limited resources” forced the city to weigh its response to lead contamination with the many other health threats residents faced.

“We worked to address the range of exposures whenever possible with the resources we could muster,” she said.

Of the 16 parks the city tested, only two – A.L. Davis in Central City and Norwood Thompson in Gert Town – had levels below 400 ppm, the federal threshold at the time, and were deemed safe by Materials Management Group, or MMG, which was and still is the city’s environmental consultant. One park, Evans in the Freret neighborhood, was found to have lead levels as high as 610 ppm but wasn’t remediated for reasons not made clear in testing documents and progress reports submitted by MMG. Thirteen parks, including Markey, underwent remediation after testing showed the properties exceeded the 400 ppm threshold that MMG used to determine soil hazard levels.

Fourteen years later, Verite’s testing found A.L. Davis and Norwood Thompson have comparatively low lead levels, although A.L. Davis had one sample slightly above the 100 ppm threshold.

Evans, which did not undergo remediation despite unsafe lead levels in 2011, had the highest lead reading of all soil samples collected by Verite. Alongside a low-hanging oak branch, on ground worn bare by children’s play, Verite recorded lead at 5,998 ppm, a level more than twice that of Verite’s second-highest sample, taken at Soraporu Park in the Irish Channel.

In 2011, MMG recommended remediation at Evans, including installing a fabric layer topped with clean soil in three areas, including the northeast corner where Verite collected the 5,998 ppm sample. MMG noted in a 2015 progress report that it had not performed the work, but the firm did not explain why.

MMG did not respond to requests for comment.

Documents obtained by Verite show that the city’s remediation efforts focused on covering patches of contaminated soil rather than the comprehensive treatment Mielke recommended to city leaders in 2011. Mielke had urged the city to fully cover play areas with clean soil, a strategy his research showed was highly effective in reducing lead exposure.

In 2010, Mielke led an effort to reduce lead exposure at 10 child care center playgrounds in New Orleans. He and his team covered the entire footprint of each playground with water-pervious plastic fabric and then six inches of Mississippi River sediment from the Bonnet Carre Spillway, a source of clean, cheap and easily accessible soil. Lead levels fell, with most playgrounds testing below 10 ppm.

The remediation at city parks also used fabric and soil layers, but the coverings were mostly limited to areas with lead levels above 400 ppm, leaving many hazardous areas exposed. Testing and remediation reports obtained by Verite typically show soil capping in only two or three spots, with most of each park remaining untreated.

The remediation at Comiskey Park in Mid-City, for instance, was limited to a 200-square-foot circle in a soccer field and a 400-square-foot strip along a basketball court. No remediation was done near the playground, where Verite’s testing detected lead levels between 155 ppm and 483 ppm.

At Easton Park in Bayou St. John, the 2011 remediation covered four areas totalling about 4,700 square feet, but the park’s playground was left untouched. Verite measured four samples around the playground that exceeded the 100 ppm threshold, including 1,060 ppm and 603 ppm readings near Easton’s swing set.

The soil cover at Markey was more extensive than in other remediations, stretching across much of the park’s playground and shaded picnic area. But Verite’s testing found high levels of lead in the remediated area, including two samples above 200 ppm and one just above 400 ppm.

“That’s kind of shocking,” Copeland said. “At Markey, the kids play everywhere, and in the sandy areas, they really dig down. I’ve seen holes going almost three feet down, like they’re playing at a beach. They could be getting into contaminated soil and distributing it around.”

Mielke was surprised to learn that the remediation results were far more limited than he recommended. He was blunt in his assessment of the work.

“They worked on too small an area, and they should have been using … large amounts of soil and covering over large areas,” he said.

Hess, a New Orleans native who recently moved to Colorado, said failing to deliver on projects is all too common in New Orleans, a city infamous for chronic dysfunction and mismanagement.

“It’s so sad to have done such a shit job,” she said. “But that’s so New Orleans. I’m sorry. I don’t live there anymore, but it still makes me sad.”

A roadmap for cleanup?

Barabino, the recreation district CEO, said he would share Verite’s results with city project managers and MMG.

“It’s definitely concerning if it’s at the level that’s considered a true risk of threat, and we would get it to (the) capital projects (administration) immediately to get MMG out there, so we could take the steps needed to remediate and make those areas and grounds safe for our kids and families to use,” Barabino said.

Filippelli said the city should conduct comprehensive testing of every park and do regular checkups. But because lead contamination in New Orleans parks is extensive and city leaders are struggling to close a large budget deficit, Filippelli recommends that the city remediate the worst parks first.

He and Mielke don’t believe the city must take the route of full remediation, which involves digging up lead-tainted soil and trucking it to a hazardous-waste landfill. That’s very costly and is usually unnecessary if a park is properly capped with clean soil, Filippelli said.

Verite obtained cost estimates for 10 of the 13 parks targeted for remediation in 2011. The total cost was $83,000 in 2011, or about $120,000 today. The work covered more than 1.3 acres across the 10 properties. Compared with similar remediation efforts described by Mielke and Filippelli, the city’s remediation efforts were very expensive. Filippelli estimates that similar work can be done for about $20,000 per acre — about a fifth of what was spent to remediate just over an acre at New Orleans parks.

Evans, Markey and many other parks with high lead levels have about an acre of open soil or grass that could be capped for about $20,000. Some parks with the biggest lead problems are the smallest in size. Soraporu Park, which scored the second-highest lead levels in Verite’s testing, would need about a half-acre of coverage. Union and Brignac parks, each less than a quarter acre, could be capped for about $5,000, according to Filippelli’s rough estimates.

Remediation should be coupled with efforts to reduce contamination from nearby sources, primarily old houses, Rabito said.

“When you clean up soil, you’re not going to do it much good if you haven’t identified what’s contaminating the soil,” she said. In many cases of recontamination, the culprit was a nearby house that was shedding lead paint.

“Which means the soil was clean for a hot minute before it got recontaminated,” she said. “So, we need to make sure that those homes are cleaned up and maintained in a lead-safe way.”

Cleaning up New Orleans parks will also likely require sustained public pressure, said the parents involved with the lead issue in 2011.

“I was not intending to kick butts or make anybody look bad,” said Copeland of her efforts to alert parents about the dangers at Markey. “But nothing would have happened unless all these parents were calling in to the city.”

This first appeared on and is republished here under a .

Among Chicago Public School employees, no one has been a bigger cheerleader for an invention designed to reduce dangerous amounts of lead in water from school drinking fountains than top administrator Robert Christlieb.

Christlieb, the district’s executive director of facilities, operations and maintenance, has worked for at least seven years on the problem of lead in drinking water at CPS schools, a critical issue for student health.

He’s appeared on panel discussions, in news articles and podcasts to highlight the district’s strategies, which has included installing an invention called Noah – a device that automatically flushes student drinking fountains on a set schedule to reduce the build up of lead in stagnant water. Christlieb has touted the device as a cheaper solution than doing extensive plumbing work in hundreds of aging school buildings.

In public, Christlieb says Michael Ramos, who works for a CPS contractor as the chief building engineer at Von Steuben High School on the Northwest Side, is the inventor of Noah. Christlieb tells the story of how Ramos wanted to protect his students from lead and worked to create a low-cost, reliable device to do just that.

“Michael [Ramos] has solved the lead problem in public schools, not just in Chicago,” Christlieb was quoted as ,. He added in the story that the district had approved expanding Noah to 25 schools as part of a pilot program. But the expansion never happened, “due to resources, staffing and the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to CPS. For now, the Noah device is in five CPS schools — three high schools and two elementary.

Christlieb, who makes more than $170,000 a year at CPS, neglects to mention one key detail as he tells the story of the device’s creation.

He’s more than just a fan of Noah. He’s listed as the co-inventor of the device he’s been promoting for years. Christlieb and Ramos share the U.S. patent for the Noah device, federal records show.

Nor does he mention that he once formed a business with Ramos to sell the device — a business that has since dissolved.

CPS declined to make any school official available to Illinois Answers Project reporters to discuss the district’s actions. CPS repeatedly did not address questions regarding whether Christlieb violated any of its conflict of interest policies but stands by him continuing to promote autoflushing, despite him having a patent on the Noah device. CPS said Christlieb does not supervise Ramos or oversee the contract with the CPS contractor that employs him.

The district explicitly prohibits its employees from working as a vendor and doing business with the school system. Christlieb formed a company with one of his friends and Ramos, in March of 2017 called RCS Water Quality Solutions to sell Noah. RCS listed as its corporate address a residence Christlieb owns in Wisconsin.

In the fall of 2017, CPS says it learned of the partnership and told Christlieb that he could not continue to work at CPS if he didn’t divest.

On the same day that Christlieb dissolved RCS, he completed paperwork to create a new business called Lead Out Manufacturing and listed Ramos as the registered agent. He again used his residence in Wisconsin as corporate headquarters, corporate filings show.

CPS said in a statement that Christlieb “volunteered” his time to help Ramos fill out the administrative paperwork to set up Lead Out and allowed Ramos to use his Wisconsin address but has nothing to do with the company.

CPS said it has no evidence that Christlieb ever profited from the Noah devices. Christlieb wrote in answers to questions that he did not make a profit, and Ramos, in an interview, agreed that Christlieb never made any money from them. Both men indicated that they had been interviewed by the CPS inspector general’s office regarding their ties to Noah, and no action was taken against them.

“Mr. Christlieb helped develop a product that helps remove lead from drinking water and kept his name on the patent as a matter of intellectual property,” CPS said in a statement.

Christlieb used CPS testing data to support the patent for the Noah device as well as for a white paper designed to promote autoflushing at Orr High School, where Noah had been installed. When asked whether Christlieb’s use of the testing data for personal use violated CPS policy, the district noted that water testing data can be obtained by anyone through a public information request.

Despite Christlieb’s significant role in the school water testing, CPS argued that the fact that he has a patent on the Noah device did not compromise its water testing.

The district said in a statement: “CPS implements a proactive lead testing program that goes above and beyond any state requirements and uses the best known practices for testing and preventing lead build up in drinking water. A flusher system … is in a handful of our more than 600 schools and we stand by our district’s proactive practices and testing procedures. The district’s lead mitigation program is overseen by a team of professionals in our facilities department. Mr. Christlieb’s invention of one tool in this field — and that tool’s use in a small fraction of the 600-plus schools in the district — has no impact on the quality or veracity of the district’s program to test for lead, mitigate lead in water and/or repair/resolve for lead in water.”

Conflicting stories

In separate interviews, the two men, once partners in selling the device, disagree on basic facts about who invented the device, what money they contributed to get it patented and what roles they played in the business, called Lead Out Manufacturing. Christlieb has offered varying accounts of his role in the firm, from initially writing in response to questions from reporters that he had 49 percent ownership of Lead Out, to saying in a CPS statement that he divested from the company soon after it was created, to indicating, in a final CPS statement, that he was never an investor at all. Ramos, in an interview, said Christlieb was involved for “a couple years” in Lead Out.

In an interview, Ramos said he is the sole inventor of Noah and he put Christlieb on the patent to persuade Christlieb to become a partner with him. Ramos noted that Christlieb as a high-ranking CPS official had “a big reach” and having him as part of the company could help sales of the device to other school districts. He said that they weren’t “necessarily” going to go after CPS business.

“His name does appear on the patent, but that doesn’t mean that he had anything to do with the invention,” Ramos said in an interview with Illinois Answers reporters earlier this year.

Michael Ramos, chief building engineer at Von Steuben High School, shows a Noah device in December 2023 installed at one of the drinking fountains there. (Victor Hilitski/For Illinois Answers Project)

Ramos said initially after they met in 2016 both men “were basically planning on starting a partnership to take it to New York, New Jersey, and do all these other things, you know, because Rob has a big reach. And I felt like, wow, what a better partner than having Rob, you know, so … as a sign of like, good faith to, like, try to bring him in and say, Rob, you know, I’ll put you on a patent with me.”

“I’m trying to introduce this to districts,” Ramos said. “The schools need it. I figured this is something that’s affordable, the districts could use. Why wouldn’t I reach out to someone like Rob, who has the title, who has the name and has the respect in the industry?”

Earlier this year, within some school buildings, prompting Ramos to text Christlieb.

“Good morning Rob, this is another candidate for Noah. Is there any way you can reach out to them? I can reach out, but they usually don’t respond because I seem to come across as selling snake oil. If it comes from you, they will see it as valid.” Records provided by CPS do not include Christlieb’s response.

Ramos said the men worked together for a couple years trying to sell the device to school districts across the country but never realized much success. Ramos said he and Christlieb parted ways after he realized the arrangement could look suspect to CPS but argued the men never did anything wrong and that Christlieb never received any money from the company.

In an interview at Von Steuben High School in December last year, Christlieb credited Ramos with inventing the device and marveled at how Ramos was able to build what Christlieb could only think about. He talked about how just the month before he came out to Von Steuben High School, where Ramos worked, to see his Noah device, he had just been thinking the month before about such an invention.

“So the interesting thing was, before I came out here in October of 2016, to see what he had done. In September of 2016, I had sat down one night, and I sketched out the idea of doing a bypass filter and having some type of controller on it,” Christlieb said in the interview with Illinois Answers reporters. “And I’m like, ‘Man if I could build something like this.’ But I didn’t have the skill set, right? And Michael did, and Michael must have been listening to me across the city because we didn’t know each other at that time and then all of a sudden I’m being called out here a month later and I’m like this is exactly what I was hoping for. But someone was actually able to put it together and the concept works and the mechanics work. It’s very simple … Simplicity is key for us.”

After reporters discovered that Christlieb’s name was on the patent, they attempted to interview him at his Wisconsin address where he was staying. He declined to answer questions in person but responded to a set of written questions.

Christlieb wrote that he was on the patent because he had made substantial contributions to the invention of Noah. He did not answer follow-up questions that asked him to detail those contributions.

Robert Christlieb, right, CPS’s executive director of facilities, operations and maintenance, talks during a demonstration of the Noah system at Von Steuben High School in December. (Victor Hilitski/For Illinois Answers Project)

The men also disagree on other issues regarding the patent. Ramos said he paid all the legal fees for the patent work on the Noah device. Christlieb, though, wrote he contributed about $5,000 for the legal work. The patent was granted to Ramos and Christlieb in 2021.

CPS provided two documents that it said showed that Christlieb had nothing to do with Lead Out. One is the most recently available Wisconsin corporate filing that shows Ramos is the registered agent for the firm, but while Christlieb’s name is not on the document, it does not address ownership. The document lists Lead Out’s corporate address as Christlieb’s Wisconsin address.

The other document provided by CPS and Christlieb involves him assigning his rights to the patent on the Noah device to Lead Out. The document is dated June 2018, more than six months after Lead Out was formed. The document is signed by Christlieb, but not by Ramos, and once again lists Christlieb’s Wisconsin address as Lead Out’s corporate address.

Starting with Flint

The district began focusing on assessing its drinking water in 2016 after , and began a 10-year testing program by sampling its over 12,000 water fixtures for lead levels.

In the first year of testing, 60% of the 490 schools tested returned at least one sample with a lead level over 5 parts per billion, exceeding the state’s action level for lead in water. Last year, the district tested 174 schools, and 92, or 53%, had at least one sample exceeding the state limit.

Since replacing all lead pipes could cost up to $2.5 billion, according to district estimates, CPS first focused on limiting the stagnant water in pipes, where lead collects, by having building engineers manually flush all drinking water faucets in its 528 campuses. Building engineers, tasked with maintaining the HVAC, electrical and plumbing systems, are required by district protocols to flush schools after a “period of nonattendance,” such as a weekend or break, once a week.

At a campus like Von Steuben, where Ramos works, manual flushing would require him and his team of two engineers to individually run the water on all 42 fixtures in the school for 3 minutes before students arrive on Monday or after a long break, Ramos said. Additionally, they would still need to complete other responsibilities such as preventative maintenance and repairs before students arrive. Experts say that while flushing can decrease lead levels, the manual process doesn’t guarantee water is safe to drink because it’s prone to human error. The district employs 685 engineers who oversee 800 buildings, meaning some engineers cover multiple schools.

A sign on the wall at Von Steuben High School in December tells students the Noah device has been installed at a drinking fountain there. (Victor Hilitski/For Illinois Answers Project)

Christlieb and Ramos argue that Noah works well because the device automatically flushes the water fountains and doesn’t rely on employees to do it.

In addition to Von Steuben, the devices have been added to drinking fountains in CPS schools at Orr High School, Belding Elementary, Onahan Elementary and Kelvyn Park High School.

All the devices installed at CPS schools have been donated by Ramos or purchased by local school councils.  There are no records showing that CPS has cut a check to Lead Out Manufacturing, but in some instances, CPS paid a contractor to install the devices. The devices cost about $395.

The devices also have been installed at two suburban school districts — Crete-Monee School District Indian Springs School District 109, according to documents obtained by Illinois Answers.

Years of promoting autoflushing — and Noah

Christlieb has promoted the Noah device for years, at times using CPS resources, starting as early as July 2017.

In that month, Christlieb a case study about the Noah flushing system at Orr Academy. And Christlieb shared the Orr case study widely to multiple school districts and city governments using his CPS email account.

In March of 2019, he appeared in a Chicago Health Magazine article that promoted autoflushing and appeared in a photo with Ramos in the story.

In a podcast interview, Christlieb said he installed Noah in his own home and that it worked “perfectly.”

And as recently as May of this year, Christlieb, using his CPS title, for , in which he discussed the Orr High School pilot program and Noah’s benefit to the district.

CPS emails and text messages show that Christlieb and Ramos also talked during the workday about promoting Noah to schools in Chicago such as City Colleges and outside Illinois including Philadelphia Public Schools and New York City Public Schools.

Christlieb appears to have played a role in efforts at establishing Noah’s credibility as an effective solution.

In March of 2021, Christlieb emailed the white paper he wrote on Noah’s use at Orr as well hundreds of pages of testing data to a Philadelphia school official, who was interested in the invention and who thanked him for his time “explaining the benefits of your Noah system.”

Christlieb responded to the official by telling him who else at CPS was involved in the project.

“For Noah,” Christlieb added, “I would recommend talking with Michael Ramos.”

Von Steuben High School on the Northwest Side of Chicago was the first site where Noah autoflushing devices were tested to reduce lead in water from student drinking fountains. (Victor Hilitski/For Illinois Answers Project)

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), are working with the Ingham County Health Department (ICHD) after lead was found in the drinking water at a building in Okemos Public Schools.

Water testing at Okemos Public Schools Central Montessori building, located at 4406 Okemos Road in Meridian Township, discovered lead levels of 5 parts per billion (ppb) in one location and another of 9 ppb in another.

While Michigan’s action level for lead is 15 ppb, MDHHS that no level of lead is considered safe for drinking water. Exposure to lead can cause brain and kidney damage, behavioral problems and even death, among a litany of other health problems.

According to a Nov. 30 communication from Okemos Superintendent John Hood, the discovery of the lead came about following recently passed legislation designed to protect Michigan children from lead contaminated-water.

“The Okemos Public Schools remain dedicated to the health and safety of our community, as well as clear and transparent communication,” he said. “In that spirit, we are writing to update our community regarding recent water testing at OPM (Okemos Public Montessori) and district plans to implement Michigan’s Clean Water Drinking Act, known as the ‘Filter First Legislation,’ ahead of the state’s 2025-26 deadline.”

The legislation is a bipartisan package of bills requiring Michigan schools and childcare centers to install filtered-faucets, develop a drinking water management plan and conduct routine sampling and testing to ensure children have access to safe drinking water.

Hood said the testing was ordered after discolored water was observed in classrooms at Central Montessori.

“As a result of that testing we discovered one sample, not related to the original concern, which required action due to lead levels above the 5 parts per-billion-level,” said Hood. “Additional testing of more than a dozen areas revealed two other faucets with lead measurements above the 5 ppb. (All hallway drinking fountains tested undetectable.) The district is following all actions recommended by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) and our testing company, Environmental Resources Group (ERG).”

Among those recommendations were to clean all of the faucet aerators, flush the system, shut off the problem fixtures, post “not for drinking” signs at the problem fixtures and continue to provide bottled water throughout the building.

EGLE Strategic Communications Advisor Scott Dean confirmed for the Michigan Advance that all of the building’s hallway filtered fountains/bottle filling stations have been “non-detect for lead,” and that the “detections have been limited to a few classroom faucets that have been taken out of service.” Dean also said the district had an alternative water supply already in place at the school.

Victoria Coykendall, health communications specialist with the Ingham County Health Department, told the Advance that the department also provided recommendations including that students and staff “could receive a lead test,” and that parents with questions about their child’s health should contact their primary care provider.

“ICHD also shared information about its lead testing program and other ways to receive a lead test,” said Coykendall. “This may change based on emerging information. We continue to provide guidance and take action to protect the health and safety of these students and staff.”

Meanwhile, MDHHS Public Information Officer Lynn Sutfin told the Advance that the state health department, along with EGLE, are working in conjunction with the Ingham County Health Department to address the issue.

“MDHHS has recommended health education information to be shared with families as well as offered to assist with blood lead level testing if needed,” said Sutfin. “EGLE has been reaching out to the school and their municipal water provider (ELMWSA) and providing technical guidance around flushing and sampling the drinking water at the school.”

A request for comment to Superintendent Hood on those recommendations and whether they were being carried out in full has, so far, not been returned.

Concerns about lead in drinking water have taken on greater scrutiny in the aftermath of the , which began in 2014 when state-appointed emergency managers tried to save money by switching the city’s water supply to the Flint River without implementing anti-corrosion treatments. The old pipes then leached lead into the city’s drinking water, with some homes eventually testing at , causing widespread health issues, including elevated lead levels in the blood of children.

While the situation in Okemos isn’t at all at that level of seriousness, because children are involved, the concern is much more amplified. The may have lower IQ scores, decreased academic achievement, increased problems with behavior and attention related disorders as well as decreases in hearing and kidney function. Those potential problems become more likely with increased exposure, with a blood test seen as the most reliable method to determine the extent of that exposure.

That was one of the motivations behind also signed in October by Whitmer that guaranteed the screening of minors for lead poisoning in Michigan. The legislation requires all children be tested for lead poisoning between 12 and 24 months of age, while also allowing for parents to opt out if they choose to do so.

In addition to Flint, also suffered from extensive lead poisoning, while other Michigan communities have faced high rates as well, including and . In 2021, a published in JAMA Pediatrics found that Michigan ranked the third highest in the nation for children with elevated levels of lead in their blood.

to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), lead exposure is especially dangerous for children under age 6 because their bodies are rapidly developing.

As for what caused the lead contamination in Okemos, it is believed that recent construction in the building, formally known as the Okemos Public Montessori at Central, resulted in lead solder that was used to join the copper pipes to be released into the water supply. The building is the oldest in the district, having .

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on and .