By Jayden Nguyen
Over the course of two weeks, Fountain Valley High School’s drinking water fountains have been shut off twice.
Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) experienced issues with their water quality during the week of Sept. 28, 2023.
During the first period of Sept. 28, Kelly Ducat, a history teacher at Fountain Valley High School (FVHS), started preparing for the day ahead by filling up her pitcher, but the water came out as a brown color.
She sent a picture of the water to the teachers and administration team, specifically the Assistant Principal of Activities and Athletics Hayato Yuuki.
“It was sent to me in a photo [of the water]. When I saw it, of course, my immediate thing was student safety,” Yuuki said.
At 9:30 a.m., Yuuki sent out a school-wide notification via Titan HST regarding issues with the water fountains and all sources of water. The notification stated the maintenance crew would investigate what was causing the water to turn out such an unnatural color.
The maintenance crew’s investigation determined that there was a pipe leak. To fix the leak, the water flow had to be shut off; however, this allowed some sediment to get into the pipes.
After the pipes were put together again, they were flushed out with an immense amount of
water. The next day, the water was tested with a safety kit, and the results came back as safe. However, the color of the water was still not colorless and clear.
“The water was actually tested to be safe, but just because of the color, we didn’t want anyone drinking it until it was clear,” Yuuki said.
The administrators resolved the problem within a week, by the following Oct. 1.
However, on the morning of Oct. 4, Yuuki sent an announcement on Titan HST.
“… Do not drink any of the water from the drinking fountains until further notice,” the notification said.
This time, although there weren’t any issues with the pipes, the water quality was tested to be unsafe to drink until further notice. Once the Huntington Beach Union High School District (HBUHSD) was notified of the issue, within 30 minutes, the district sent over enough water for every classroom on campus.
In order to figure out the problem, over the weekend, the HBUHSD sent a person to test the water. They found in three tests that the water was deemed to be safe to drink again.
According to Yuuki, the issues regarding water safety occurring two times spanning over two weeks resulted in lots of frustration.
This reason that was found to be the problem connecting all the cases together is due to the remodeling of the pool, which involved modifications of the pipes
According to FVHS Principal Paul Lopez, the issues stem from the fact that the plumbing system has existed since FVHS was built in 1966, resulting in an outdated system. Typically there are multiple switches for different areas, but due to the age of our school, the only way to shut off the water is to shut off the entire school plumbing system.
The reason why the color of the water came out to be such a color resulted from the pipes themselves. The pipes are made of galvanized steel, this specific material picks up sediment very easily.
“Water goes through a lot, and it just doesn’t go straight,” Lopez said. “It rotates and goes through, and so what it does is that it starts taking all the sediment.”
In that process, all the sediment picked up changes the color of the water.
This issue may last until the end of the construction of the school’s pool, which is set to end in June 2024. If this issue arises again, both FVHS and HBUHSD are prepared to keep students safe.
“We’ll just follow the same protocol that we’ve been doing,” Yuuki said. “The district [HBUHSD] has been really good at getting us water quickly.”
