As Sturgeon Creek School in Barwick and the Sturgeon Creek Annex in Stratton wait to find out if their drinking water is safe, the Rainy River District School Board is installing chlorination injection systems at both sites.
“We ordered in the chlorination systems as soon as could, and they’re being installed right now,” Education Director Warren Hoshizaki said yesterday, adding the two schools are last public ones in the district to get chlorinators.
While it’s hoped the new systems will clean up the coliform problem as quickly as possible, Hoshizaki added the move also is a step in the board’s plan to ensure the safety of water at all of its schools.
“We’re getting legislation related to water quality and following that, Murray Quinn [the board’s superintendent of Plant Operations and Management] is setting up a system to operate at a threshold higher than that legislated,” he noted.
“For instance, right now, the Northwestern Health Unit has been very co-operative, but eventually, we’d like to test it ourselves on a more frequent basis,” said Hoshizaki.
As a precautionary measure, the board also will send chilled bottled water to all schools serviced by wells in the district for any future emergencies.
And in any future alerts, the health unit, or possibly a board testing team, will contact Quinn directly, who then will contact the principal to make sure the school has posted notices not to drink the water.
Communication will be made with parents as soon as any update on the water is received.
Meanwhile, both schools are “getting by” after working under a boil-water advisory since last Monday, principal Jerry O’Leary said.
“We’ve got bottled water and water dispensers everywhere,” he noted yesterday. “And the students are doing fine. We are training for cross-country, so they’re drinking a bit more than usual, but they’re fine.”
O’Leary added he was confident the situation would soon be under control but didn’t want to take any chances in until then. “Until we get the official notification, we’ll keep on doing what we’re doing,” he stressed.
“We are still sampling at the two schools, and we have yet to receive two consecutive ‘good’ results,” noted Bill Limerick, environmental team leader for the health unit.
O’Leary received a boil-water advisory on Sept. 8 after traces of the bacteria coliform–which can cause severe ‘flu-like symptoms such as diarrhea and vomiting–were found in the water at both schools.
In related news, Sioux Narrows Public School, while not part of the board here, remains under a boil-water advisory that was issued about three weeks ago.