OXNARD : Unsafe Nitrate Levels Found in School Well

Bottled-water dispensers were installed at Rio Del Valle Junior High School in Oxnard Wednesday after unsafe nitrate levels were found in drinking water drawn from a campus well.

Officials of the Rio Elementary School District plan to meet today with the United Water Conservation District of Santa Paula to discuss temporary water supplies.

A line operated by the water district runs along Rose Avenue in front of the school. Connecting the school to it will take about two weeks, Assistant Supt. Fernando Cuevas said.

The school district’s board of trustees will discuss emergency authorization to spend $20,000 for the connection at its meeting next week, Cuevas said. The connection will remain in place through the end of the school year. Officials will discuss possible long-term solutions next summer, he said.

Letters were sent Wednesday to parents of the school’s 470 seventh- and eighth-grade students, informing them that bottled water is being provided for drinking, said Supt. John McGarry. Well water will continue to be used in restrooms, he said.

District officials said nitrate levels in the drinking water were 112 milligrams per liter, more than twice the maximum of 45 milligrams per liter set as the safety standard by state law.

A high nitrate level can cause “blue-baby syndrome” in infants under 6 months, affecting the blood’s ability to carry oxygen, but does not pose a similar hazard to older children or adults, said Robert Gallagher, resources section manager of the county’s environmental health department.

State law requires well water quality to be checked every three years.

The school is surrounded by strawberry fields, and sparse rainfall may have lowered the water table and caused nitrates--which are often contained in farm fertilizer--to seep from ground water into wells, McGarry said.

Principal Gary Martino said although no one reported becoming ill from the water, students and staff have complained that it was “not very palatable.”