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MIDVALE — Some students at Midvale Middle School are tired of eating pizza for lunch every day, but it’s not like they have much of a choice.
“I got an automated call on Tuesday (last week) saying that they were handing out water bottles to the kids and that there was a problem with the water,” said Stacey Kratz, mother of an eighth-grade student.
Until the problem is cleared up at the school, 7852 S. Pioneer Street (310 West), workers can’t cook lunch in the cafeteria and children can’t use the drinking fountains or wash their hands.
But some parents didn’t quite know the extent of the problem. “As a parent, I would just like to be a little more informed as far as what exactly is going on,” said Sheila Armstrong, a member of the PTA board at Midvale Middle School.
Canyons School District spokeswoman Jennifer Toomer-Cook said the district acted as quickly as possible to keep students safe.
“We had signs up,” she said. “We had valves turned off to drinking fountains. We brought in bottled water for every single student.”
During a routine check in mid-November, health officials found bacteria in the water system — first found in the school's swimming pool, which is near construction on the school’s campus.
Construction in the area may have introduced some dirt to the lines, said Teresa Gray, bureau manager for water quality and hazardous waste for the Salt Lake Valley Health Department.
“That’s not necessarily any bacteria that can harm you,” explained Shawn Gonzales, a water quality specialist for the health department. “We had no E.coli whatsoever.”
The standard is zero. “You really don’t know if there’s any kind of pathogenic bacteria that might be present, so you want to err on the side of caution,” he said.
Gray said crews disinfected the entire system over the Thanksgiving holiday. Now the school is waiting for results of water tested by the health department, which could take about 48 hours.
Until the results come back clean, students will continue to eat sack lunches or pizza, and drink bottled water.
Earlier, the school canceled basketball and swimming practices. The district says those practices will resume this week.
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