Date: Fri 04-Oct-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: DOTTIE

Quick Words:

schools-water-contamination

Full Text:

Water Worries Inundate School Officials

B Y D OROTHY E VANS

Yes, educators and town officials say, the well water serving the town's four

elementary schools is safe to drink. They are conferring with town and state

health officials and a program of retesting is underway.

But just to be on the safe side, the kids at Head O' Meadow School are now

drinking bottled water.

"I'm all of a sudden this week becoming an expert in water supplies," said

Business Director John Torok.

Mr Torok said he and Superintendent of Schools John Reed have been in almost

daily contact with state health adviser Xavier Soto, with local health

department director Mark Cooper, as well as with Dr Thomas Danyliw, a

physician at Danbury Hospital, concerning the results of a routine well test

taken a week ago at Head O' Meadow School.

The test results showed a slightly higher than normal coliform bacteria count.

"There is no health threat, but we're monitoring it," Mr Torok said, adding

that no child had become ill as a result of drinking the school's water.

Coliform is a strain of bacteria that is not uncommon in well water at very

low levels. It can come from decaying animal matter that enters the systems

through a break in a pipe or through seepage from another source.

An elevated coliform level is a cause for concern because it might indicate

the presence of other, more dangerous types of bacteria that could cause

serious symptoms such as nausea, dizziness or vomiting.

Elevated bacteria levels in one test result should not be considered

conclusive, officials warn, and coliform counts can vary up and down for a

number of reasons.

The school officials are hoping to head off a panic reaction to the news

concerning that one test taken at Head O' Meadow last Friday, as well as to

reassure residents that the results of a 1993 radon gas test done at all four

elementary schools and recently reported in the Hartford Courant, are also

inconclusive.

Counseling a wait-and-see attitude, Dr Reed, speaking at Tuesday night's Board

of Education workshop meeting, advised board members to watch for results of

retesting and listen to the advice of health experts about whether any further

action should be taken.

Taking a cautious stance, however, Dr Reed said the administration had asked

Dom Posca, supervisor of buildings and grounds, to turn off the school's

drinking fountains early in the week and flush the well and entire system with

chlorine to cleanse it.

In addition to providing the bottled drinking water for use by the school

staff and children, officials have asked Aqua Environmental Labs of Church

Hill Road in Newtown to retest the wells by Friday, when the chlorine should

have dissipated.

"Once we get clearance that it's been retested and [health director] Mark

Cooper's office says it's fine, we'll go back on line with the regular

drinking water," Dr Reed said.

"If it [the elevated coliform count] returns, then it's not normal," he added,

and the next step would be identifying the source of the contamination and

correcting the problem.

Radon Worries Resurface

Another concern is the possibility that an unsafe level of radon gas is

contaminating the wells at all four elementary schools, Hawley, Middle Gate,

Sandy Hook and Head O' Meadow.

The two remaining school buildings, Newtown High School and the Middle School,

are hooked up to the town water supply, so radon contamination would not be an

issue, Dr Reed said.

An article in the Hartford Courant, September 29, focusing on radon problems

in 20 Connecticut towns published a list of test results that were taken in

1993.

Newtown had volunteered to participate in the statewide testing program, and

its results on that test did show elevated radon levels, Dr Reed said. At one

point the levels measured in Middle Gate School were the highest of all the

schools surveyed in the state, according to the Courant story.

But health officials question the validity of the test, because radon is a gas

that dissipates as it moves upward out of the ground and through the water

system pipes - a process called "off-gassing."

"There is no agreement on what this means," Dr Reed said of the 1993 radon

test results.

According to Dr Thomas Danyliw, a physician at Danbury Hospital, radon test

results tend to "spike" so they may be high one day and low the next.

Dr Danyliw advised the town to test for radon four more times, once during

each of the four seasons, and then average the results.

Dr Reed commented that even when the final test results came in, they might

not be informative because no standard has been set for schools on radon

content in the water.

A radon standard has only been set for private homes, Dr Reed added.

"Neither Mr Cooper nor Dr Danyliw is urging instant action. We don't want to

jump into something unless [the experts] tell us we should," he told board

members.

Mr Torok said Wednesday that while radon gas might have totally dissipated by

the time it reaches the end of the water system in a school environment, say,

at the drinking fountain, it could be considered a health hazard if there were

high levels found in the home, where people might be standing in their showers

for a long time.

"There's a large volume of water coming down and more of the gas is escaping

into the steam," Mr Torok said.

"You might be standing there awhile, - not only inhaling the steam, but

letting the water run continuously over your body. For a lot of us, it's the

way we wake up in the morning," he added.

As a precaution, Mr Torok said homeowners should have their well water tested

for radon.