Cost to fix Oakland schools' lead problem could be as much as $53 million

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Parents, students and teachers from the Oakland Unified School District rallied outside Oakland City Hall Monday afternoon. All of them demanded the district and the city do more to get the lead out of drinking water at OUSD schools.

"The fact that it's an open question. And the fact that people have to doubt whether the water that they're drinking at their school sites is safe for them to consume is just unacceptable," said OUSD parent Nate Landry.

Landry was one of those leading the rally.

"I don't think the fact of lead contamination in and of itself was the hugest shock. I do think that the scope of the problem across so many different school sites was certainly shocking," Landry said.

RELATED: Unsafe lead levels found in drinking water at multiple Oakland public schools

As a part of their rally, Landry and his "Get the Lead Out of OUSD" coalition have created a list of five demands from district leaders.

Some of those include getting the lead levels down to zero, as well as annual testing at all OUSD campuses.

But fixing the problem won't be cheap; the district has already shelled out for some repairs, along with water stations and refillable bottles for students.

The entire project could cost anywhere from $16 million to $53 million.

RELATED: Oakland Unified tests water at all schools after lead detected in drinking fountains

Money the district says it doesn't have.

They discussed the issue at a Monday night meeting of the Oakland Education Partnership Committee.

"We can't do this alone as a district. And we do need help from the city," said Jennifer Brouhard.

Faced with its own budgetary issues, the city says it will work with the district, as well as other governmental entities to try and find a solution.

MORE: San Mateo County schools' drinking water contaminated with nitrate

"We will not accept the district and the city pointing fingers at once another talking across each other, bouncing the ball back and forth in terms of who's responsible for this," Landry said.

Because for Landry and others at the rally, they want answers and they want them now.

"This has got to be a time when district leadership, city leadership, county, state, federal, whoever needs to be pulled in here should be pulled in to ensure that this does not happen again," Landry said.

The committee is expected to meet again in October to discuss next steps in addressing the problem.