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Water's
back on tap
at Coloma elementary school
South Bend Tribune
- 1/14
There's
a line at the drinking fountain at Coloma's Washington Elementary
School again.
After
18 months of drinking bottled water in addition to having cafeteria
workers wash and cook with it, the school is now connected to
the city water line while its old well was capped.
Principal
Marianne Mansfield said routine testing 18 months ago showed that
Dachtal, a herbicide used in the recent past, had contaminated
the well.
The
levels of Dachtal were at such a point they could be toxic if
they were administered to human beings in large doses, Mansfield
said. But that would take much more than amounts of the water
at the school, she added.
But
to be safe, Mansfield said the Department of Environmental Quality
arranged for the school to get bottled water.
But
after the school was hooked up to the city's water line in December
and passed ensuing tests, the fountains were back last week.
"Kids
are so adaptable," Mansfield said. "By noon, it was
as though nothing had ever changed."
Washington
Elementary School has about 360 students in grades kindergarten
through fourth.
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