The water was shut off in the Science Center by the Office of Facilities Management on Sept. 12 due to reports of the water having a strange taste and odor.
Although the water was tested for contamination by a third-party environmental consultant, Brickhouse Environmental, the results presented a “clean bill of health” according to Kevin Kane, assistant vice president of Facilities Operations.
The discoloration was caused by sediment in the water, Kane said.
“There is always sediment in water mains and water pipes,” Kane said. “There is something called a scouring velocity, so the higher the velocity, the more likely it is to lift up that sediment in the bottom of the pipe.”
A week before Kane said he received complaints about the water from a science faculty member, the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) lost one of their water pumps at the Belmont Avenue pumping station, causing a drop in water pressure and a loss of water on campus for about 30 minutes. When the PWD opened fire hydrants to expel the air trapped in the main, Kane explained, the high velocity of the water caused sediment to be picked up and dispersed into the water.
“It is not harmful,” Kane said. “It is sediment. There is no issue with that, but it could affect the taste of water for sure. Because we did have that failure at the water department prior to these complaints, in an abundance of caution, we shut everything down and tested.”
Lynly Carman ’21, a biology major, said she has been concerned about the piping in the Science Center.
“I know the issue that made students know something was wrong was that there was brown water coming out of the second story water fountain,” Carman said. “There’s obviously something in there that shouldn’t have even changed the color, so whether it’s just dirt, that’s not ideal.”
Carman, along with other students who major in the sciences and frequent the Science Center, said she was not directly informed by the university that the water would be turned off in the building. Kane confirmed an email was only sent out to Science Center faculty and College of Arts and Sciences administrators.
Three science faculty members contacted by The Hawk acknowledged there had been an issue with the water but said they didn’t know specifics behind the reason for shutting off the water and declined to be interviewed.
Ashley Russell ’20, a chemistry major, said the lack of communication to science students is typical.
“I feel if this was like Mandeville or something there would have been a whole story immediately, apologies and everything,” Russell said.
Kane said the only way to clear the sediment out of the pipes is to turn the water back on. The water in the Science Center was turned back on the morning of Sept. 19.
Kane also said the water is safe to use for lab experiments and to drink, adding that Facilities changed some filters on bottle filling stations after the water was turned back on.
Since last semester, students have noticed a foul odor and taste in the Science Center water, Carman said, as well as a “sewage swamp” smell from a broken toilet in a first floor women’s bathroom. When Carman worked in the Science Center over the summer, she was warned by other students not to use the water fountains in the building.
“There’s been talk about the water being messed up,” Carman said. “We’d go to other buildings to get water if we needed to.”
Christina DeAngelo ’20, a chemistry and secondary education major, also said she doesn’t like drinking unfiltered water from the Science Center.
“I always know not to go to the water fountains without the water filters because they always just taste gross,” DeAngelo said.
Kane said the Office of Facilities Management is investigating possible causes of the strange odor and taste from the water fountains. Kane said he believes that the cleaning product used to clean the water fountains, Sparkle, could be causing the unusual smell and taste.
“The number one ingredient is mineral oil, which is completely safe, so it smells bad,” Kane said. “As they are going to bend over and get a drink they get a whiff of something, that is just a smell of cleaning, and smell and taste are closely connected. We are actually looking at finding something different for housekeeping to use so that this doesn’t happen again.”
Kane said there has only been one other possible contamination scare in the Science Center since he started working at St. Joe’s in 2007. In 2012, one of the domestic water pumps inside the building failed because of a bad circuit breaker.
“That was a time where some faculty thought they noticed an odor in the water fountain again,” Kane said. “We tested it and there was no contamination in that case either.”
