Complaints of brown water persist at Tacoma school. ‘The situation is unacceptable’
After cleaning out the popcorn machine at Birney Elementary School on March 21, PTA member Andrya Holt went to wash her hands. What came out of the faucet surprised her.
“The water in the bathroom was brown,” she said.
Holt’s third-grade student attends Birney at 7627 S. Sheridan Ave. in Tacoma’s South End, and her twins were once enrolled there. Until that day in March, she didn’t know that brown water had plagued Birney for weeks at its adjacent “round building,” which houses the school library and first-grade classes.
Then Holt noticed cases of bottled water sitting in round-building classrooms. She said she learned from a staff member that the brown-water problem has persisted since mid-February. The district had been notified, she added, but nothing had been done.
Teachers have been tapping into their own bank accounts to provide students with water bottles, Holt said.
“The district [to] my knowledge hasn’t done anything — supplied water for these students, sent anyone out there to fix the problem — let them know that it’s going to be fixed, when it’s going to be fixed,” she said. “I don’t understand how they can do that for these families. Like if these kids get sick, what are they going to do then?”
The News Tribune reviewed pictures of Birney’s alleged water problem. In one photo, two water bottles stand side by side: One is clear and the other, which was filled from a Birney tap, contains murky water. In another picture, muddy-looking sediment has settled at the bottom of a bottle.
The News Tribune asked Tacoma Public Schools about the issue.
Tacoma Public Schools is aware of the discolored-water concerns and is taking the issue seriously, said district spokesperson Tanisha Jumper. Seventeen water samples were gathered on April 1 and sent for testing at a lab, with results expected to return in around four or five weeks.
The district is working to resolve the issue with experts and Tacoma Public Utilities, Jumper said.
“TPU has been conducting water flushing in the area and has expressed that Tacoma’s water meets all federal and state drinking water regulations and is safe to drink,” she said via email. “We are committed to providing a safe and healthy learning environment for everyone at Birney.”
Tacoma Water wrote in an emailed statement that flushing discoloration typically subsides within minutes, or more rarely, hours. As such, Birney’s brown water likely isn’t related to flushing or any water-department activity.
The department believes that the water problems at Birney stem solely from the round building as other campus structures weren’t affected.
Holt’s water claims were echoed during a March 28 school board meeting. Kaelin Kerr strode up to the lectern and identified herself as a “concerned parent” of a first-grade Birney student.
During her daughter’s Valentine’s Day party, Kerr said, the water at the Birney round building had turned brown. It had been “deemed unsafe for use ever since,” she said.
“Our children now bring their own water bottles, and teachers have had to dip into their own pockets to provide water for students,” Kerr told the school board. “The children can’t wash their hands after using the restroom and have to rely on hand sanitizer to clean their hands.”
Asked whether the district is reimbursing teachers who say they’ve bought bottles, Jumper replied: “Every building has a process for approval of purchases and subsequent reimbursement.”
Kerr implored the district to tend to the brown-water matter.
“The situation is unacceptable, and it is imperative that immediate action is taken to ensure the safety and well-being of our children at Birney,” Kerr said.
In Holt’s view, Tacoma Public Schools should have acted sooner to provide all Birney students with clean drinking water. She cited the state’s landlord-tenant act, which requires major plumbing repairs to begin within 24 to 72 hours.
“They should have had somebody out there,” Holt said of the district. “It’s kind of like the housing authority: You have [around] 48 hours to fix the problem. Why is it different with a school that is housing 500 students?”
This story was originally published April 11, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
