Water treatment systems will be
put in schools
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer

HOWELL — The Board of Education has approved a $16,000 expenditure for the installation of water treatment systems at three Howell schools. President Patti Blood said that, following the recommendation from the board’s Buildings and Grounds Committee to move ahead with the installations, the entire board voted its approval at a recent meeting.

Buildings and Grounds Committee Chairman Gene Tanala said he expects the water treatment systems to be installed by mid-October.

The Ramtown School, the Greenville School and Howell Middle School South will be equipped with water softening systems in order to eliminate gross alpha radiation and radium 226 and 228 from water being supplied to the three schools by the Parkway Water Company, Marlboro. Students and staff members are presently being supplied with bottled water at those schools.

The measure followed Parkway Water’s July notification to its 1,800 customers in the Ramtown (southern) section of Howell. Customers were informed that water samples tested from two of the company’s wells had shown elevated levels of gross alpha radionuclides and radium 226 and 228 exceeding state accepted norms.

The contaminants are naturally occurring in soil that are activated by excessive lime and fertilizer use as well as by movement of the soils. The health risk, especially for developing bones, lies in the fact that radium mimics calcium and once ingested, remains in the bones, officials have said. It is because the density of radium and calcium are so alike that the water softening system is effective in eliminating the contaminants from the water being pumped through it.

State Department of Environmental Protection scientist Dr. Gerald Nicholls has assessed the risk of cancer due to radium 226 and 228 as being "incrementally small" and given the risk level at a one in 10,000 chance of a fatal cancer developing if two liters of contaminated water per day is consumed by an individual for 70 years.

Following the submission of five quotes from water treatment companies, the Howell Water Treatment Company was selected by the board to install the water treatment systems at the three schools.

Michael Howell, the company’s president, was the professional the board consulted with regarding the type of treatment systems to be installed at the schools. Howell submitted a quote to do the work that was for cost and came in under the prices offered by the other bidders, according to Tanala and Blood.

According to Tanala, after the initial $16,000 equipment and installation fee for the treatment systems, the Howell Water Treatment Company will be paid a monthly fee of $100 per school for the products and labor needed to maintain the three systems.

Tanala has said he thinks the water treatment systems should remain operational at all three schools even after Parkway Water achieves the accepted remediation requirements which the firm is expected to do over the next two years.

Parkway Water’s general manager has said the company expects to have a remediation plan developed and submitted to the state by Dec. 31.