Some Fayette County residents want more water testing at Fayetteville Elementary, where roughly 105 students in one building had been using bottled water and hand sanitizer from Jan. 26 until the school system recently let them use the tap water again.
Gary Hough, the Fayette school system's associate superintendent, said the kids were taken off bottled water earlier this week, after the school system received the results of a lead test last week and the results of a total coliform bacteria test last month that didn't show cause for concern.
But Fayette schools Superintendent Terry George said the kids were again placed on bottled water Friday after use of fire hydrants by the town of Fayetteville pushed a large volume of water through the lines, stirred up sediment and reportedly caused discoloration. He said he expects the issue will be cleared up by Monday.
Kristine Gilkey, a physical education, art and music teacher at the school, said the water was "brownish-red" Friday. She said water issues there have been ongoing for years, and sometimes the water clears up before getting bad again. She said other Fayetteville residents have experienced water issues.
"It's even worse now, it's getting to where it's just unbelievable," Gilkey said. She said she doesn't know what the problem is.
"We've just never received a straight answer, and we've been asking for years," she said.
In an email, West Virginia American Water spokeswoman Laura Jordan said ongoing water quality testing at the utility's New River Water Treatment Plant and its distribution system, which serves the school, "confirm that water meets all federal and state drinking water standards."
"... As a water utility, we collect and test water up to the customer meter, as we do not control the pipes and plumbing configurations inside buildings, which can add variables beyond our control," Jordan said. "As a measure of good will, at the request of the Fayette County Health Department, we have offered to perform advanced drinking water analyses for volatile (EPA Method 524.2) and semi-volatile (EPA Method 525.2) organic compounds on water samples that the health department will collect at Fayetteville Elementary School and deliver to us. We will share the results with the health department once complete."
She said it's important to note that the Bureau for Public Health regulates drinking water in West Virginia, not local health departments.
The Fayette organization Headwaters Defense organized a march Friday afternoon from the Fayette County Courthouse to the elementary school and eventually to the Fayette County Health Department. Gilkey, whose son, Brandon Richardson, is a co-founder of the organization, said about 35 to 40 people took part.
Danny Scalise, the health department's administrator, said the marchers delivered about 20 signed form letters asking his department to request that the state Department of Health and Human Resources, which includes the Bureau for Public Health, approve further drinking water testing.
Gilkey told Scalise the water was still discolored and presented him with samples that he said he couldn't accept because he didn't know who'd handled them. He said the department went to the school Friday to take another sample, which showed no discoloration. Scalise said he was also submitting that sample, taken from a water fountain, for a total coliform bacteria test.
Richardson said school students, parents and staff have been making complaints, which include that the water is discolored, has a bad smell and taste and is possibly causing sickness.
He provided Scalise with about a 15-page list of chemicals he said should be investigated, including those associated with fossil fuel wastes. Scalise, who said such testing would be very expensive, said he'd take the issue before the local board of health.
Scalise said he didn't think the school would be having a localized issue, noting his department is within about 200 yards of the school and served by the same water system, and said others in the area haven't complained to the department. He said his department didn't tell the school system whether the water was safe or whether students should be on bottled water, and when asked why there was only one test for total coliform bacteria and one test for lead, he said that's all the school system requested.
Toby Wagoner - a spokesman for the Bureau for Public Health, whose labs tested samples that a Fayette County Health Department sanitarian gathered - wrote that the results from the two tests "do not indicate any level of public health concern."
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazettemail.com, facebook.com/ryanedwinquinn, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.