Pupils still banned from drinking tap water two years after it went blue
YOUNGSTERS at an Exeter secondary school are still banned from drinking the tap water there — more than two years after it became contaminated.
In 2007, the Echo reported that staff and students at St Peter’s School, in Broadfields, were puzzled when supplies turned blue.
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St Peter's headteacher Mark Perry
Bottled water stations were set up by school managers Carillion and pupils were told not to drink the mains supply.
They were instructed to use only the bottled water available at the stations or their own brought from home.
A water filtration unit was installed in the school’s staff room for teachers.
At the time, a teacher told the Echo the water supply had been discoloured for some time.
Carillion, which rebuilt and now runs the school building as part of a private finance initiative (PFI) deal with Devon County Council, has carried out work to resolve the problem over the summer holidays. But pupils have not yet received the go-ahead to drink the tap water.
South West Water said the discolouration was due to elevated levels of copper in the water.
Carillion first carried out tests on internal plumbing in March, 2007 and said it would continue to monitor the water quality.
A spokesman for the firm said that it had replaced the copper piping with plastic-coated piping over the summer holidays.
She said Carillion was carrying out further tests to check the water quality before it could give the school the all-clear.
Headteacher Mark Perry said: “I understand they have done some work on it and we are waiting to see if it has corrected the problem.”
He said staff and pupils had got used to having to drink bottled water but, once the problem had been sorted out, they would go back to drinking mains water.
A spokeswoman for South West Water said: “When work on the internal plumbing is complete, South West Water will return to the school and take new samples to check the quality of the water.”
She added: “When they are ready for us to come back in and test the water quality, we will do that. But we haven’t been approached by them as yet to go back into the school.”
The Echo’s Fix Our Schools campaign highlighted a host of problems following the building of five new secondary schools.
Most of the problems, including over-heating and poor-quality playing fields, have now been resolved.
4 Comments
by Dan Corber, Exeter
Saturday, September 26 2009, 5:05PM
“This is disgusting. Sort it out Mark.”
by Year 11 student, St Peter's, Exeter
Thursday, September 24 2009, 4:35PM
“the problem with over-heating has been resolved?! it hasn't - its still really hot in most of the classrooms!
this tap water problem is in the long list of other things that have also been banned - spiky hair was banned, non-school uniform jumpers, shirts and ties and not forgetting the school council...
in 5 years time, i expect that pupils will be coming to school naked - as the school will have banned everything other than the staffs food supply.”
by PS, Exeter
Thursday, September 24 2009, 10:11AM
“This is a strange coincidence! my bath tap used to drip & it leaves a bright blue stain on the ceramic bath. Its started ever since i had a combi gas boiler installed & along with frothy water that i was told it was normal due to the additives the water company install. The good news is that all my family are still alive!!”
by T A Griffin, Exeter
Thursday, September 24 2009, 9:45AM
“I can't believe what has been going on with the Exeter PFI schools. We know about the fines on construction firms for breaching rules, now this.
We really should have a statement from Mr Bradshaw, we were originally told the schools would cost £98 million, now we know that the cost is really £315 million. This is a disgrace, please get to the bottom of what has been going on. Where is investigative jounalism.”