Graves near school’s well worry students, parents
MOBILE, N.L. • Studentsin Newfoundland are drinking bottled water amid concerns about how close their high school’s well is to an adjacent graveyard.
They attend Mobile Central High School, a 40-minute drive south of St. John’s. It opened in 2008 next to a cemetery that has been there since the late 1800s.
“There’s signs all over the school saying: Do Not Drink the Water,” said one student who took photos of brown water Wednesday.
“We’re not allowed to drink any water. All of our taps are closed off.”
One parent estimates the well is within about 10 metres of the graves but a school board spokesman said it is about 40 metres from the closest grave.
Education Minister Dale Kirby said Friday it’s not unusual for well water to run brown for a time after less use during summer months. He said it has been tested and is safe to drink.
Still, notices are up in the school as the analysis done by provincial Service NL staff has not been fully assessed and endorsed by the local health authority, Kirby said.
And he said it’s up to the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District, which initially provided the bottled water, to decide when it’s no longer needed at the Grade 7 to 12 school of about 260 students.
Ken Morrissey, a spokesman for the board, said no explicit distance from graves is required under sanitation regulations of the Public Health Act.
He also said in an emailed response that, although the well water tested safe in July, students will receive bottled water while a waterline is moved as part of a planned extension of the school.
Kirby accused opponents of the school extension project of hyping water concerns to advance their cause.
“There is not a single doubt in my mind this is entirely political,” Kirby said.
Susan Stamp, one of almost 800 members of a local concerned parents’ group fighting the project, said the water wasn’t discoloured last year. She said parents and students are worried.
Stamp’s group, the Concerned Parents of St. Bernard’s and Mobile Central High, has lobbied the province for years to build a new middle school in the region.
Instead, the governing Liberals plan to expand Mobile Central High School.