DEP says water safe to drink at Beth-Center schools
The state Department of Environmental Protection said Friday the water is safe to drink at the Bethlehem-Center elementary and high schools after investigating earlier independent testing that found unacceptable levels of chemicals that can cause cancer in the water there.
The department on Feb. 4 tested the water at two locations in each of the schools in Deemston and found the levels of trihalomethanes to be well below the acceptable level for public water systems, DEP records show.
The DEP agreed to test the school’s water after the West Virginia University Water Research Institute tested the supply and found unacceptable levels of the chemicals in the district’s water. The district’s superintendent, Linda Marcolini, reached out to WVU to have the tests performed after concerns about problems with pollution in Ten Mile Creek.
The district receives its water from Southwestern Pennsylvania Water Authority in Greene County, whose supply has been in compliance with the state’s clean water regulations since 2013, the DEP’s sanitarian supervisor, Paul Vogel, wrote in a letter this week to the school district.
Vogel also noted in his letter Beth-Center is required to receive a letter from the water authority any time its supply is in violation of safe standards.