originally posted on April 18, 2016

Students at Meeker Elementary School are back to drinking bottled water as an extra precaution after routine water quality sampling on March 30 revealed the presence of total coliform in the school’s water supply.

Students at Meeker Elementary School are back to drinking bottled water as an extra precaution after routine water quality sampling on March 30 revealed the presence of total coliform in the school’s water supply.

After the first tests were positive for total coliform, students and staff drank bottled water until further testing revealed the water contamination was contained to two staff bathrooms, a drinking fountain and the art room. Those areas were taped off from use, and students and staff went back to drinking water in the classrooms.

While all other water in the school has tested negative for total coliform, Kathy Hanson, the district’s director of school, community and media relations, said students and staff have now gone back to drinking bottled water as an “extra precaution” until all school water samples are free of bacteria.

A press release from the district on Monday said while the district is making progress on the water quality concerns, it hasn’t totally eliminated total coliform bacteria from the school’s water.

“By itself, (total coliform) generally is not going to make you sick,” said John Dunn, the city’s water and pollution control director, in an interview with the Tribune.

The samples of the water in the contamination areas at Meeker Elementary continue to test positive for total coliform bacteria, but Dunn said that does not include e. Coli, indicating the contamination is not a sewage problem.

Dunn said the cause of the contamination likely occurred during construction of the new Meeker school building, which opened last fall. Dunn said he speculates that during construction, a little bit of dirt got into the pipe and from there, the bacteria grew until it was large enough to be detected by the water testing.

“It is almost impossible to keep all dirt out of a construction site,” Dunn said.

Dunn said while he has seen this type of contamination in new piping, such as Meeker, it is uncommon in established water main pipes.

Dunn said the city takes a minimum of 60 water samples each month across the city of Ames, which looks for total coliform, along with other testing such as chlorine and pH levels, to ensure all water is safe for usage.

The school district has been working with the city of Ames’ Water and Pollution Department, experts from Iowa State University and experts from two private chemical engineering firms to resolve the Meeker water contamination issue.

“(They) plan to continue to chlorinate and flush the system really hard,” Dunn said.

The district has already begun chlorinating the pipes in multiple applications, increasing levels of chlorination each time to wear away the layers of bacteria.

“The experts say that sometimes the chlorination process must be repeated several times to remove all bacteria,” said Gerry Peters, the district’s director of facilities planning and management.