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| WATER WAR — SAD 17 Facilities Manager Dave Marshall (right) reacts to a comment from parent Brian Poland (left), at a January 15 meeting about recent uranium contamination of the water supply at Harrison Elementary School. (photo by Duke Harrington) |
HARRISON
— A new $3,000 filtration system has cleared drinking water at Harrison
Elementary of uranium contamination, school officials say, but for some
parents, questions linger about the welfare of their children.
In
August, a routine quarterly test of the water supply at Harrison Elementary
found traces of coliform — an indicator of possible e. coli contamination — in
a kitchen sink. In early September, coliform also was found on a faucet in Room
103.
Although
the coliform issue was quickly resolved, a Maine Health & Environmental
report detected at that time uranium levels of 56 microns per liter,
system-wide, at the school.
The
Maine Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends uranium levels in drinking
water of less than 20 microns per liter for homes and less than 30 microns per
liter in public buildings. The higher
level is acceptable to public water supplies because people are expected to
consume less in that setting.
Still,
in various safety brochures, the CDC advises people to “use less tap water for
drinking” at uranium levels between 20 and 30 microns per liter, adding that,
at levels above 30 microns per liter, “You need to act. Switch to bottled water right away.”
According
to the CDC, prolonged exposure to high levels of uranium in drinking water,
over a period of time, can cause kidney problems.
At
the behest of the Maine Drinking Water Program, SAD 17 posted a notice about
the coliform issue on September 15. The
next day, a second test for uranium found levels of 49 micros per liter and a
second notice was posted. School
officials stress that neither posting constituted a “do not drink” order. However, at the request of parents, SAD 17
began to truck in bottled water on September 22.
Students
consumed about nine gallons of bottled water per day, or about six ounces per
day, per student. Certified water quality specialist Jeff Twitchell, a founding
co-owner of Air & Water Quality, Inc, of Freeport, says CDC standards for
safe uranium levels are set at a presumed lifetime consumption of two liters
per day, with adverse affects even then only expected at rates of “one death
per 100,000 people.”
That,
Twitchell says, is an indication that students in Harrison were never in any
real danger.
“The
real risk is pretty darn low,” he said.
The
schools well system was “shocked” with chlorine October 12, and deemed free of
coliform October 15.
SAD
17’s operations committee recommended treatment of the school’s water supply
for uranium on October 20, a plan voted on by the full school board November
3. Following installation of a treatment
system, the school’s water was tested again for uranium December 5, by which
time levels had dropped to 2.2 microns per liter.
Despite
the fix, which Twitchell says came “pretty darn quick, based on the relatively
low heath risk,” a vocal group of Harrison parents, backed by selectmen,
continued to call SAD 17 officials to the carpet.
After
two weather-related cancellations, school officials met with parents and
selectmen at Harrison Elementary January 15.
The
primary concern among parents at the meeting was that, while Harrison
Elementary has a filtration unit installed when the school was built in 1986,
that system was “bypassed” in 2002 before finally being removed in 2007.
“These
are relatively low numbers for the state of Maine,” said Twitchell. “The fact that you had any water treatment on
this system in the first place is pretty rare, even at numbers higher than this
school is at this time.”
But
that statement did not seem to assure Harrison selectman Lisa Villa. She agreed with Twitchell that other areas of
Maine have higher incidences of irradiated water, but noted that her daughter,
now a fifth grader, has potentially been consuming uranium at twice to three
times acceptable levels since kindergarten.
“I
was disturbed to find out that the system was removed,” said Villa. “We’re talking about children. They don’t have the ability to just go out
and get a bottle of water. They can’t
make that decision. As adults we need to
err on the side of caution.”
SAD
17 Superintendent Dr. Mark Eastman acknowledged at the meeting that the
district did get dinged for removing the filtration system without notifying
the state. However, he said the system
was disconnected, and later removed, at the recommendation of Dr. Jerry Lowery,
of Blue Hill-based Lowery Systems, Inc.
“We
had a relationship with Dr. Lowery,” said Eastman. “We trusted Dr. Lowery. Dr. Lowery gave us bad advice. We probably should have got something in
writing from him saying, ‘This is what the tests indicate. You don’t need this [filtration system].’”
However,
Villa said Lowery Systems officials have denied telling the school it could
safely remove its water filtration system, or even being consulted.
“Did
you talk to Dr. Lowery, personally?” asked Eastman.
“Well,
no,” Villa admitted.
Dr.
Lowery was unavailable for comment Monday.
However, company president Sylvia Lowery backed up Villa, says SAD 17
was never told it should disconnect Harrison Elementary’s water filtration.
"That's
absolutely not true,” she said. “We did
no such thing."
“There’s
obviously some question as to whether the well water is any good,” said Bryan
Pullen, owner of Summit Springs. “You
can try to play it down, but uranium is pretty serious stuff.
“No
testing was done since 2002,” said Pullen, “so we really don’t know what the
kids have consumed.”
SAD
17 facilities director Dave Marshall says uranium levels were not regulated
with the Albiri filtration system was that taken out of the Harrison
school. Tests were not required for
uranium until this past fall, he said.
“There
are two pages of things they want us to test for, a lot of which I can’t even
pronounce,” said Marshall. “They do test
for lots of things but uranium was not one of the things that was on that
list.”
“It
may not have been regulated,” said Villa, “but it was detected. The right thing to do, especially when it
comes to an elementary school, would have been to keep that system. I just can’t imagine why somebody would
decide, ‘We don’t need it, let’s bypass it.’
If the system was functioning properly, why would you take out that
extra layer of filtration?”
“Because
the expert said ‘You don’t need it, you’re meeting your regulatory needs’” said
school board member Adam Tsapis, of Harrison.
“I don’t know if this guy, Lowery, is feeding uranium-tainted water to
his children, but it sounds like the district got a bum steer.”
“We
rely on experts like Jeff [Twitchell] and Dr. Lowery to advise us,” said
Eastman. “There’s no question that we
acted on their advice. Did we act on
advice that was inappropriate?
Certainly, in retrospect, yeah, we did.
We’re happy to admit that.”
The
CDC notes that uranium and radon are more likely to be present when water
sources are tapped through bedrock.
Harrison Elementary has a 275-foot-deep, drilled well, and Eastman says
that his recent research reveals that uranium is a problem, “up and down the
Route 35 corridor.”
“I
don’t know if the town [of Harrison] has gone to its citizens to tell them they
should be testing for uranium,” he said.
“If
this is so dangerous, what are the people in Harrison doing to correct the
problem at their own homes?” asked school director Don Gouin, of Norway. “Kids are going to drink more water at home
than they are in school.”
“That’s
a private issue,” said Charles Landers, Jr., whose grandchild attends Harrison
Elementary. “We’re talking about a school.
We’re talking about you people being responsible for our children.”
“If
people want to feed their children poison, I guess they can do it,” said
Pullen. “That’s an individual
responsibility. We’re trusting in you
when we send our kids to school.”
“Well,
I get defensive when people imply that we don’t care about their children,”
said Gouin. “That bothers me a lot,
because we do. There’s no ifs, ands or
buts about it.”
“How
can you sit there and say that when the actions you guys have taken don’t
reflect what you’re saying?” asked Landers.
“You
wait just a minute, pal,” said Gouin.
“We hired the so-called expert to tell us what to do.”
“But
there’s no records of any of that,” Landers shot back. “Are we supposed to just take your word?”
“What
do you think — we’re just going to lie to you?” asked Gouin.
“Well,
we’ve been lied to many times on this matter,” said Landers.
“No,”
said Gouin. “Not from us you haven’t,
mister.”
Although
no school official rebutted Landers' “no records” claim, Twitchell seemed to
back up the belief that the original filtration system was not needed.
“I
can tell you that the drinking water program would not have required that
system at the time it was put in, based on the tests I’ve seen,” he said.
Still,
Pullen hammered on the fact that the SAD 17 failed to test for uranium for six
years after removing the filtration system.
He also noted that while a note was sent home with all 185 Harrison
students about the coliform issue, notification about the uranium contamination
was limited to newspaper ads and public postings.
“That
was just an oversight,” said Harrison Principal Kim Ramharter. “I was not trying to keep any information
away [from parents].”
“I
don’t know where you want to go with this,” said school board Chairman Ron
Kugell. “People in the system acted in
good faith on recommendations they received from people who should have been
knowledgeable about this whole thing. A
problem arose. The school system acted
immediately to correct it. The problem
is now corrected.
“What’s
the sense of pointing fingers?” asked Kugell.
“We can break down into an argument or a fist fight, if you want, but if
you are concerned about [uranium] here at school, you should be triply
concerned about it in the home. Maybe
some good can come of this, but water over the dam is over the dam. There’s no point in beating it to death now.
“If
we were in a situation where this hadn’t been addressed, if we were sitting on
our hind ends doing nothing, then you people would have a legitimate
complaint,” said Kugell.
Villa
continued to press, asking why the filtration system was removed, and why no
testing was done for uranium after that.
Had it not been for the detection of coliform, she said, parents might
still be unaware of any uranium issue at the school.
“What
you’re saying is true, but what’s that got to do with today?” asked Kugell.
“Well,
are you going to shut the system down again a year from now, and not tell
anybody?” asked Pullen.
“I
don’t know, do you think we will?” asked Kugell.
“You
did it before,” said Pullen.
“Under
advice from the expert,” said Kugell, stressing each word individually. “I have to wonder if you are really being
serious with me when you say that, or if you are just trying to grandstand.
“If
you really think that we would do that, then I question your intelligence,”
said Kugell.
“Well,
I’m wondering why it happened before,” said Pullen.
“You’ve
been told why,” said Kugell, raising his voice.
“You either believe it, or not.
You either accept it, or not. But
that’s got nothing to do with where we’re going now.”
At
that, Eastman jumped in to say, whether required by state regulation or not,
SAD 17 will test for uranium every year at all four district schools with
drilled wells — in Harrison, Hebron, Otisfield and Waterford.
“We
will be happy to publish the results of uranium tests in the school
newsletters, henceforth,” said Eastman.
“You
guys are very, very lucky to have these kinds of people [in charge of the
schools], based on what I see,” said Twitchell.
In many public waters systems, he said, problems are not fixed “until
someone threatens to put the handcuffs on.”
“I
do a lot of schools, and a lot of public systems,” said Twitchell. “There’s lots of violations out there. You don’t even want to know how long the list
is, and what the state of Maine is trying to do to get people to act, and the
hoops they are having to jump through.
But they just mention it to these guys [the SAD 17 school board] and
they are all over it.”
Although
the January 15 appeared to end in a sort of detente between parents and school
directors, Villa said she is not finished.
She hopes, she said, to convince Lowery to put in writing its claims
that it never advised removal of Harrison Elementary’s water filtration system.
“This
is about accountability,” she wrote in an email, Monday.
The
concern, she said, is that in four hours of phone calls to Eastman and to
officials at the Maine Drinking Water Program, uranium was never revealed as an
issue. It was not until she switched
from identifying herself as a parent to referencing her status as a selectman,
Villa says, that she began to “get answers.”
“I
was disturbed by this,” wrote Villa. “It
should be just as easy for a parent to get accurate information as a
selectman.”
“It's
not only about my daughter,” said Villa, “it's about the other children whose parents
are working and miss the forms sent home or whose parents don't understand the
depth of the problem. It needs to be
right for all children, not just for mine.”
